ABILITY BUILDS
You complete me.” That memorable line from the 1996 movie Jerry Maguire, now holds special meaning for me.
A former Habitat for Humanity volunteer, I hadn’t had the opportunity to help with a build since becoming a paraplegic nearly seven years ago, and I was excited for the chance to participate again.
I arrived at the ABILITY Build site with eagerness, protective goggles and sunscreen. After our safety orientation for the build, which was hosted, in part, by Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles, each volunteer was assigned to a crew leader. I got Bethy Davis, a cute, tall, slender, blond girl who could make any tool belt look good. She then chose Mark Goffeney as the third member of our crew. Looking over at him, I noticed right away that he didn’t have arms.
“Aren’t we a pair?” I thought to myself. Right away I knew this was going to be quite the experience: a girl who can’t use her legs, and a guy who has no arms. Unbeknownst to me, however, I was being sized up by Mark at that exact same moment. He was quick to observe that I was a female in a wheelchair. Little did we know then that we would get an immense amount of work accomplished and change a few perspectives along the way.
I was put in charge of measuring and cutting the wood. Bethy provided me the measurements, and I used a chop saw to cut the long 2X4’s down to size. Mark saw me struggling to hold down the planks, and quickly jumped in to help. “I will pick up the other end and level it for you,” he said. I kept my eye on the wood as I fed it through the saw, all the while wondering how Mark was picking up the slack behind me. After lining up the next 2X4 on the table, I glanced over my shoulder and saw him lift the wood with his foot.
“Of course that’s how he does it,” I thought to myself. It was at that moment that Team Mark, Bethy and Briana-MB2 was in full effect.
Within the first hour, Mark and I were “in the zone” and had gotten a good handle on our tasks. Using one foot, he pulled out the tape measure and, with the other foot, used a pencil to mark the necessary length needed. As he passed the boards to me, I used the chop saw to cut them to his precise measurements. We took great pride in our work, and were pleased when we received the thumbs up from Bethy for our impeccable accuracy.
At one point, I turned to my teammate and said: “Mark, you complete me.” We both burst out laughing, and yet it was true. We were a force to be reckoned with. Neither of us questioned the other’s ability, and we continued to encourage one another with each new task.