Grateful.
It’s one of the many feelings running through an Avondale family now that their disabled daughter’s custom wheelchair stroller has been returned.
“She was in it within five minutes of it being returned, happy and comfortable and cooing away,” says Beth Rasch.
Rasch tells WOKV they were starting to plan for the next steps they would take to replace Clara’s stroller, which was taken from their porch on Halloween. While the chair would have cost about $6,000, Rasch says their main concern was the time to replace the custom piece- up to 18 months.
“Clara has certainly taught us over the last ten-and-a-half years to keep our chins up, keep moving forward,” Rasch says.
With that mindset, it was even more shocking when they got a phone call last night.
“They thought everybody had looked, and they just happened to glance over and thought- wait a minute, isn’t that a stroller?”
The chair was tucked out of plain view in the driveway of a home undergoing renovation. That home is about five blocks away from the Rasch’s.
Beth says they were overwhelmed by the outpouring of support they received from the community, from people offering to help pay for a replacement to others offering custom chairs they had which were no longer in use.
“We were just so happy to be able to let all those people know- the ones that were offering up things as other options in the meantime- that we didn’t need them because her chair had come back,” Rasch says.
While the family’s concern was getting the chair back for Clara, police tell us their investigation in to the apparent theft is still ongoing.
