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I saw Ricky as a caregiver to his grandmother from the first time I laid eyes on him.
I first met Sue when she came over to do a home care visit with my grandma.
The relationship with my grandmother was pretty tight because no one else was around to take
care of her.
She was actually going to the hospital a lot more than usual and so I’d actually dropped
out of high school and went full time taking care of my grandmother and working full time.
Most kids are worried about just going to a movie theater, hanging out with friends,
and he had to give all that up. He played sports, he was an athlete—loved it.
But had to just…through circumstance, he had no choice.
I feel like he felt so stuck. And just alone.
Walking to work was about an hour and a half walk every single day but it really didn’t
cover me from the rain or snow.
My heart just melted because I could see that it was the fact that he didn’t have a car
that he was being held down.
Sue and Gary had noticed that I needed a car and their daughters, Brittany and Jackie,
had actually surprised me with a fundraising page.
I was actually very surprised that anyone would do that and I was even more surprised
that people were actually donating.
Him having a car was a way for him to progress in life, where he could go to school at night,
get his degree, which then could lead him to the army.
It was just…it was an outlet for him to start a new chapter in his life.
You know, the day we got to finally announce to Ricky that we had enough money to get a
car was very exciting.
When I first saw my car, I was asking myself is this really my car, and I went up to go
touch it.
And it just…it was real obviously, so it wasn’t a dream!
Just to see what’s happened since that car, [he] couldn’t have done it without it. So…it
changed his life.
My grandma pushed me, you know, told me to do good things in life, gave me the motivation
to further myself.
Getting this car has…has been a journey and it’s really a milestone in my life.