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Having had to rely on the use of a walker for balance and getting around the house, or a hand-me-down wheelchair which was falling apart, being the recipient of a brand new wheelchair brought joy and excitement to Hazel Vera Jacobs’ Rocklands home.
The 91-year-old, known affectionately as ‘ma Hazel’, evidently has pain as she moves gingerly from her couch to the new wheelchair, but she is still quick to crack a joke or two.
On Wednesday 6 March, Ward 81 councillor Ashley Potts delivered the new wheelchair to her home, sponsored by the office of Cape Town Mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis.
“I was very glad that they have made the efforts for this. I am so glad. I can’t go out. There are many places I can still go, but I didn’t have a proper chair,” she says.
Potts was approached by members of the local neighbourhood watch for assistance in getting a new wheelchair for Jacobs. Not having any funds left from his own budget, he wrote to the Mayor’s office who granted the request for a new blue and yellow chair.
With plastic still on the wheels and foam covering the pads and parts, Jacobs was quick to comment on how spacious the chair felt, and how eager she was to take her first trip.
“I am relaxing. It is nice and wide, the other one I could hardly move in,” she says.
“I was patiently waiting for when it would come, now I have one of my own. Something decent.”
Her daughter Geraldine Damon says Jacobs has Osteoporosis and arthritis in her spine, causing a lot of pain.
“I am the one who drives her around. She has a lot of hospital appointments.
“We had a wheelchair from my dad. He had a stroke in 2003 and died in 2015, so we had his wheelchair for a while. It had seen its days. The seat gave in and we had to get a plank with the pillows for her to sit on,” says Damon.
With her mother still wanting to be active, going on drives and even to church on a Sunday morning became an embarrassment for her due to the nature of her tattered chair.
Potts says he has a soft spot for the seniors of his ward and wanted to do all he could to assist Jacobs.
“I heard that there are a few residents struggling and a lot of our residents are coming to the SASSA pay points and struggling with their walking (aids). A number of them fell a few times and I get complaints about the pavements and tripping and that’s because they don’t have a wheelchair,” he says.
“It is too costly to get a wheelchair and the family is already struggling with municipal accounts and other bills. I wanted to try and find a way to help and did not realise there was a helping hand in the mayor’s office. I dropped the email and they assisted us in getting the chair. I just love to see our seniors cared for.”
In a video message recorded for the mayor, Jacobs thanked him, saying: “I will think of you always, that you are the one that made (a way) for me to have this chair. Thank you very much.”
She has needed a mobility aid for a number of years. Having fallen a few times, she has had a fractured pelvis and injured ribs.
Jacobs will be 92 on Friday 29 March – a holy birthday she says as it will also be Good Friday.
Although she has her health concerns, she still has her wits about her, still enjoys cooking and cleaning and visiting the outdoors.
