SMYRNA, Tenn. (WTVF) — From the outside, Rebekah Crager's Smyrna home looks like many others. But on the inside there are holes from her wheelchair in the drywall and doors.
The floors and counter tops are ruined.
"The wheels will get stuck on that transition and it kind of fishtails and I can't control it (my wheelchair), it goes wherever it wants to go," she showed NewsChannel 5's Rebecca Schleicher.
Crager's permanent place is now the living room - the only room she can fit the needed hospital bed.
"You get real creative," she laughed, showing how she uses a walker to hop up onto the bed. "When you can't do things."
When she and her husband Richard bought the place a decade ago she wasn't wheelchair bound. She had recently landed a job as a business analyst.
"I finally got my dream job and I loved it," she said.
But then, she says a series of spiraling health issues changed the house from a home to a makeshift hospital.
"Cauda equina syndrome," Crager listed some of what she's dealt with. "They had to take all of the metal out of my leg again, pnemonia, mersa, I was septic."
"I've had 27 spinal surgeries total...I just have all these rare things that no ones ever heard of, if it’s a one-in-a-million chance, I have it," she mustered a tearful laugh.
And last year more bad luck: her handicap van and wheelchair were totaled in a crash.
"The first responder got the wheelchair off me, it was on top of me, a 600 pound wheelchair," she said.
The crash of course added more injuries and bills.
"You hear about a 1-2 punch," said Schleicher, "but this is like a—"
"Like a – 1-50,000 punch," Crager said.
Her husband Richard who himself is facing cancer has become a full-time caregiver.
"You have to keep it together enough to keep going," he said. "It's going to tear me up…and yet I have to kind of play act like it's not."
But the new van payments cost more than their mortgage. And they're finally asking for help.
"You look at the number on a monthly basis and you go 'cough cough' or something to that affect," Richard said.
Rebekah says she tries to focus on gratitude.
"I feel blessed that I have a roof and that I have a wonderful husband that loves me," she said, as she started to cry. "But on the other hand I'm not too far away from not having that roof over my head."
With no family nearby and few connections, their biggest need is some handy work around the house.
"I don’t know how I could sell this house in the shape it's in and get into a place that is handicap accessible," she said.
And she says she hopes her story opens your eyes to the reality your handicapped neighbors face behind closed doors. She thinks too many are trying to do this alone.
"Reach out to them and see if there's something you can do to help them," she said.
Diving into artwork helps her make it through the day as she refocuses on the small things. Like making gifts for some of the nurses who helped take care of her in the hospital.
"I don’t think healthcare workers get enough appreciation," she said.
Because with homes, just like with people, you never really know what's happening on the inside.
Crager wants to move closer to family for more support, but needs to sell her house first.
If you or anyone you know has construction skills or materials and want to help fix some of the issues in her home, you can email her at ohmyartstuff@yahoo.com.
You can also support her through this GoFundMe.
