Hazel Johnson and her daughter Brenda Willis enjoy a new ramp that allows Hazel to once again walk to church and go shopping or visit the doctor. MLM volunteers made the new ramp this spring.

The best way to describe the conclusion of this story is that Hazel Johnson can once again walk to her church.

Hazel, who lives at 3612 Wabash, was virtually a prisoner in her own home. At age 94, she was unable to negotiate the steep steps in front of her house, even to attend her church less than a block away.

“I used to skip up those steps,” she recalls today. “But I can’t get up them now.”

Equally serious, Hazel found it difficult to reach the curb so her daughter Brenda Willis could drive her on errands, even to the doctor. That’s when Metro Lutheran Ministry came into the picture.

Hazel and her daughter Brenda are friends of long-time MLM volunteer Edith Bolder. Through Edith, they learned that volunteer help could assist with construction of a ramp that would allow Hazel to reach a driveway in the rear of the home. This April, volunteers from the Revolution United Lutheran Church joined perennial MLM volunteer Leroy Zimmerman to complete the ramp in only a matter of days.

“It changed her life,” Brenda said. “It has let her get back into the community.”

Hazel’s family has had contact with MLM previously. One of Brenda’s sisters, the late Donna Kinney, volunteered for several years with the organization.

Hazel and her daughter said the workmanship and care brought by the volunteers was dramatic in itself. “They even moved a rose bush to make room for the ramp,” Hazel noted. “That’s one of my yellow ones.”

Brenda said the family cannot express their appreciation enough. “Just be sure to say we thank them,” she stressed. “It’s made so much difference.”