Acts Of Kindness Bring Fran A Van

By Nancy K. Crevier

After two weeks, Fran Walczak has finally quit crying — tears of joy. On December 4, Ms Walczak took delivery of a 1999 Dodge Caravan that will restore her independence and allow her to return to the job market.

Ms Walczak has been in a wheelchair since 2001, capitulating to the symptoms of multiple sclerosis after a lifetime of holding the disease at bay. A fiercely independent woman who worked for 19 years as the director of an outpatient clinic for children and adolescents, the Sandy Hook resident is also a woman of strong faith.

“I believe in miracles. When I got really sick in 2001, they told me I would never live independently, and that didn’t happen. That occurred because of God’s grace,” said Ms Walczak. And likewise, she believes that her quest for a vehicle to replace the handicap-adapted 1998 Ford Windstar that was costing thousands of dollars a year in repairs has been answered through the grace of God. “That’s why this vehicle’s name is ‘Grace,’” said Ms Walczak.

“My life is very humble, but very blessed. When I started having to spend thousands of dollars each year on the Windstar, I didn’t know what to do. I put this van on the ‘altar’ and gave it up to God. And every day I would pray and ask Him for a solution,” she said.

God’s grace worked through the hands of a very human man, though, she is quick to point out. “Bob Crabtree performed an estimable act of kindness,” she said.

Robert Crabtree, Jr, is the owner of Colonial Toyota in Milford, and it is through a give-away program run by his company this past spring that Grace is sitting in Ms Walczak’s driveway today.

“My partner, Julie Genz, heard about this give-away for a 2010 Silica from Colonial. They would give a car to someone who had financial difficulties, but who had made a significant contribution to the community. We thought that if I won the car, we could have it modified for less than it would cost to keep my old van running, or use it as a trade-in on a handicap-accessible vehicle,” said Ms Walczak.

She contacted friends and relatives and asked them to nominate her for the give-away, based on her work at Danbury Hospital and with the Girl Scouts’ Girls Rule program.

An advisory board at Colonial Toyota sifted through the bombardment of nominations mainly supporting the Terese and John O’Shea family and Ms Walczak. The board awarded the Silica to the O’Sheas, but what looked like a loss for Ms Walczak soon appeared to be a win.

The vehicle the O’Sheas were turning in was a van that had been refitted for their wheelchair-bound son, who died at the age of 16 in April from complications of cerebral palsy. When the O’Sheas learned that Ms Walczak was runner-up and of her plight, they asked Mr Crabtree if he would consider refurbishing the van and giving it to her. He agreed, and Ms Walczak excitedly waited out the weeks while the van was overhauled.

“Its last stop was Ride Away Vans in Norwalk, to install the hand controls,” said Ms Walczak. By this point, she had taken her Windstar off the road for safety reasons, and was relying on others to take her and her manual wheelchair on errands. “It is very difficult for me to ask for help like that,” said Ms Walczak. “I’ve always done things for myself.”

Then just as delivery of the van seemed imminent the first week in November, the bubble was burst. “Ed Cryer of Ride Away Vans called me on a Saturday and I knew that couldn’t be good,” she recalled. No one had thought about the fact that the O’Sheas’ van had been fitted for a child. An adult wheelchair would not fit in, and there was no exterior way to open the van and put down the ramp, as it was supposed that the operator would not be handicapped and could do it from the inside. “I thought the whole deal was dead in the water,” said Ms Walczak.

But to her surprise, she received a call from Robert Crabtree that Monday. “He said that he had promised me a van and would get me a van. But he also said he knew nothing about handicap accessible vehicles, so I put him in touch with Ride Away Vans,” said Ms Walczak.

The rollercoaster ride of emotions was not quite over yet. “They would call and say they had a van. Then they didn’t have a van. They had one, they didn’t have one,” Ms Walczak said. Finally, the call came: Ride Away had found a handicap van in Vermont with low mileage that would work. They truly had a van for her. Ride Away Vans installed a new exhaust system, overhauled the engine, and put top-line tires on the van before turning it over to Colonial Toyota. “Bob Crabtree paid for everything himself. I paid not a penny. He paid for the license, the registration, and the taxes. When the first van fell through, Bob could have said, ‘Sorry. We tried, but it didn’t work out.’ But he said, ‘I promised you something and I’m going to live up to my word.’ If we all had that kind of conviction, the world would be a better place,” declared Ms Walczak.

“It’s just not in my nature to commit to someone and then turn around and say we can’t do it,” said Mr Crabtree. “We should have known before we made the commitment to Fran if the O’Sheas’ van would work. A passenger-outfitted handicap van is quite different from an operator handicap van,” he said.

The event turned out to be a costly financial decision, but Mr Crabtree chalks it up to “doing the right thing.” Plus, he said, when they realized how much of an impact receiving the van made on Ms Walczak, it boosted everyone’s morale in the dealership. “I’m so happy it worked out,” Mr Crabtree said. “We could not have worked with two more wonderful families, the O’Sheas and Fran Walczak.”

 It was pouring rain the day she took possession of the deep blue Grace, so her first trip was simply back home. The following day, she and Ms Genz made a return trip to Colonial Toyota in Grace, though, so that Ms Genz could purchase a new car there.

“This van is wonderful. I can’t get over it,” said Ms Walczak. Special buttons on the key fob allow her to automatically open the side door and lower the ramp, both of which she was doing manually with her old vehicle, if she wanted to go out. “Grace has heat! She has a stereo! And a new muffler system!” exclaimed Ms Walczak. The upholstered seats are cushy and at a level that allows her to sit more comfortably once she lifts herself from the wheelchair into the driver’s seat.

“I am so grateful to be able to get out of my house and on my own. I cannot say enough good things about the people who helped me. Bob Crabtree is just a wonderful man,” Ms Walczak emphasized. It is not the price of an act of kindness that is important, but rather that the act is a gift unto itself, she said, and added, “If we could each practice kindness each day without looking for something in return, I think the whole world would change.”