“The elevators are out; we’ll have to use the steps.” Doesn’t sound like a big deal, does it? But, it is a big deal if you have a number of aging veterans in wheelchairs at the top of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., when you hear the news.
Wendi and I were blessed to travel with a group of veterans from Wayne and Holmes counties in Ohio to the nation’s capital as part of the Honor Bus Trip, designed to take veterans to see the war memorials. Don Way of All-Ways Trans Plus provided the ride, and Elaine Hess served as the tour guide. Sunday, Aug. 28, 2016, was the last day of the three-day journey. The original plans called for visiting the Washington Memorial on the way out of town and back home. However, there was a problem.
Elaine told the group there were problems with elevators at the Washington Memorial; so, it was closed. A decision was made to stop at the Jefferson Memorial instead. This was a good idea because one of the guardians on the trip, Barry Jolliff, had never been to this particular memorial and wanted to see it. (Elaine and Don were very flexible and accommodating.) It didn’t seem as if we were missing out on anything because from any point in Washington, D.C., it seemed as if we could see the Washington Memorial.
So, we traveled to the Jefferson Memorial, and those veterans in wheelchairs used the elevators to get up to the statue of Thomas Jefferson. (Not all veterans using wheelchairs needed them, though some did. The tour guide wanted to make things easy on them and encouraged as many as possible to use the chairs.) Ironically, as we began to make our way down, word started spreading about how the elevators were not working. At first, we thought it was a joke because people kept coming into the monument from the area where the elevators are. Someone said they were working, but they were just slow. The reality was they were not working.
Guess what? “The elevators are out; we’ll have to use the steps.” I thought how in the world are we going to get these veterans in their wheelchairs down these steps. To look up from the ground, it doesn’t seem as if there are a lot of steps. However, they look much more daunting when you are in the rotunda of the Jefferson Memorial and looking down and wondering how are these vets in the wheelchairs going to reach the ground.
Wendi said she was glad the elevators didn’t break down before the veterans had a chance to see the memorial.
But, the veterans came up with a plan and executed it to get each of the veterans down safely. It involved manpower, and lots of it.
“It was awesome to see how everyone pulled together to help the veterans reach safety,” Wendi said. “It had been a joke all weekend when we counted off on the bus to make sure ‘no man was left behind,’ but now it was no longer a joke. You could see everyone — from the volunteers to the veterans — were concerned that we had everyone down the steps safely.”
“Thomas Jefferson, a man of invention and innovation, would have admired what the group did in order to get the men down the steps,” Wendi said. “When mechanics and advancements failed, human ingenuity — and necessity — made all the difference.”
