It’s not every day that you walk into a store and leave with both a new family friend and life-altering equipment.
Jessica and Mark Getty of Brookhaven, Pennsylvania brought their son, William, to their local Lowe’s with a very specific mission in mind. William was born prematurely, resulting in quadriplegic spastic cerebral palsy. Their goal is to get him up on his feet and walking on his own, so they decided to build a set of parallel bars for him to practice on at home.
As they stood in the PVC piping aisle of the store, they were approached by Lowe’s employee Dave Urban. Dave dropped everything to help the family when he heard what they were building.
Dave spent the next half hour gathering materials, cutting PVC pipes, and putting together a homemade set of parallel bars. When the moment of truth arrived, Dave held back tears as he saw William using the bars.
“Will got up, out of his wheelchair and grabbed a hold of those bars,” Dave recalled. “I think you saw that courageous smile of his. Sense of pride, it keeps getting me.”
“It was evident that it meant a lot to Dave, too, because he started to tear up, as we were, as he was building and it was just really cool,” said Mark.
Leaving the store happy and filled with gratitude, the Getty family brought their new mobility tool home and set it up. By the end of the first day, William was able to pull himself up to stand and practice walking forward, backward, and side to side.
Jessica says Dave’s kindness “meant the world” to them, and they likely couldn’t have made the bars without Dave’s assistance. The way he took on the task so willingly and enthusiastically truly warmed her heart, and Dave feels proud to use his skills to help William learn to walk.
“Just go the extra mile and it may reward you 100 times back,” he said.
Great advice there, Dave! Helping others feels so good, doesn’t it? We’re so glad Dave was there to assist this family, and we’re rooting for William as he gets better at walking each day!
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