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'You either laugh or you cry'
By WAVENEY ANN MOORE © St. Petersburg Times, published October 8, 2000 ST. PETERSBURG -- For the past 10 years, Melanie Haigh has struggled with a neuromuscular disease that is gradually depriving her of the use of her legs.
On Sept. 3, her life got more difficult. Her blue 1992 Dodge Spirit, in which she had left her most important ambulatory aids, was stolen from her condominium at 61st Avenue and 12th Street S. Though the car was recovered a few days later, her lightweight wheelchair, braces, and a walking stick made by her brother were gone. Since the theft, she has been forced to alternate between a cumbersome wheelchair and another that causes her legs to swell because it has no footrests. Ms. Haigh, who is divorced and has a teenage daughter, is holding out hope that her prized wheelchair and other belongings will be returned. Her car, meanwhile, which spent a good part of the summer at a repair shop and had to be returned for more work after it was recovered, stopped running last week. Reviewing the events of the past few weeks, Ms. Haigh observed: "It just goes on and on. ... You either laugh or you cry." Her mother, Fran Kennedy, who lives nearby, said, "It looks like things just pile on." Ms. Haigh said she had just gotten her car back from the mechanic when it was stolen. "My daughter and I had gone to the grocery store and gotten back about 9:30, and my daughter had gotten the groceries in and everything and I'd gone to bed. And it was about 3 o'clock in the morning when my daughter came in the bedroom and said the car was gone," Ms. Haigh said. Sixteen-year-old Michelle had gone into the kitchen to heat an herbal bag for a back pain when she looked through the window and realized that her mother's car was missing. "She said, the car was gone. I said, no, the car is not gone," Ms. Haigh recalled. "It had my lightweight wheelchair, my braces with my shoes attached, a walking stick that my brother made, CD player and CDs that my daughter had in the car, a paycheck that was in the backpack I put on the wheelchair to use at school (where she works). Everything was gone. The cushion that goes with the wheelchair was gone. The only thing that was left was a pair of sandals that I had found that I could wear when I'm not wearing my braces." The car, which apparently was taken early Sept. 3, was recovered two days later at 3145 33rd Ave. N, said Officer Johnny Harris, a St. Petersburg Police Department spokesman. "We have no leads. We have no suspects," Harris said. Through August of this year, the number of vehicle thefts in the city increased more than 22 percent, from 1,257 to 1,538, according to figures released by the department. The theft of a car has been particularly difficult for Ms. Haigh, who has Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. It's also known as hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy or peroneal muscular atrophy, according to the Muscular Dystrophy Association. The progressive hereditary disorder mostly affects muscular and sensory function in the limbs. Ms. Haigh's daughter has inherited the disorder. "About three or four years ago, we found out she has it and she also is an epileptic. She had a seizure in the middle of this," said Ms. Haigh, referring to the family's recent crisis. "She's doing pretty well. She is a very easygoing child, probably mature beyond her years," Ms. Haigh added. "She's just turned 16. She does things for me that I think most children would not think of doing. Whatever I ask of her, she does and no questions asked. She does it. She is an amazing child." Michelle, who shows no sign of her mother's symptoms, said she thinks about the disorder but does not dwell on it. "It's not like it's the end of the world," she said. Friday morning, as the the sun was rising, Michelle assisted her mother, who used a walker to get to the car they had borrowed from her grandmother. As they were about to leave the apartment, her mother remembered something. "Michelle, did you get the beans?" Ms. Haigh asked. The teenager, a student at Lakewood High School, quickly turned back to get the bag of beans her mother planned to use to help kindergarteners learn how to write their names. Ms. Haigh, a graduate of the University of South Florida, is a paraprofessional who helps a teacher at Skyview Elementary School. Ms. Haigh said the staff at Skyview has been kind. Members collected money to help with the repair of her car after it was recovered. One of the teachers had gotten the lightweight wheelchair for her. "A friend of hers had just passed away," Ms. Haigh said. "This was probably about a year ago, and she asked what they would do with the wheelchair and she asked them if she could have it for me to use. I got to school that Monday and there was a brand-new lightweight wheelchair that I could maneuver. It was so much easier for my daughter to fold and put in the car." Now she uses the old wheelchair, without footrests, at work and another for errands. "She needs a lightweight wheelchair, so if she finds hers, it would just be a miracle," Mrs. Kennedy said. She added that her daughter's homeowner's insurance may cover part of the cost of a wheelchair, but that has not yet been determined. "She is so sweet. You never hear her complain," Mrs. Kennedy said of her daughter. "She has been very determined to be the very best she can. I know that when she asks for help, it is important." Asked about their optimistic spirit, Ms. Haigh and Michelle spoke as one. "Our motto is we'd rather laugh than cry," Ms. Haigh said as she labored with her walker Friday. "If we didn't laugh," finished her daughter, "we'd cry."
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