Vaughan woman puts silver lining on family's tribulations
Sandra Longo started, Navy Street, a charity that provides portable wheelchair ramps to people with permanent disabilities

Yorkregion.com
June 25, 2017
By Adam Martin-Robbins

Sandra Longo’s family has faced a mountain of adversity that would cause many people to crumble and she’s long wanted to put a silver lining on their story.

But it took a near-fatal car accident for her to realize exactly how to make that happen.

Sandra’s life began with a struggle.

She and her twin brother were born premature and nearly died at birth. Shortly after they arrived home from the hospital, their father was crushed by a cement truck.

The accident left him in a full body cast and left her mother, Mary, to look after three young children by herself.

Nearly four years later, tragedy struck again.

Her brother tumbled out of a car as it pulled out of their driveway and was run over.

He survived, but underwent numerous procedures to repair the damage.

A few years later, Mary went into hospital to deliver her fourth child and wound up paralyzed due to complications caused by her epidural, Sandra said.

“Growing up, I remember my mom used to be able to socialize with all of our neighbours ... and all of a sudden, in the snap of a finger, her life had changed and she had to come home and live in a wheelchair,” she said. “She used to cry a lot and become emotional because she couldn’t go outside from her own home.”

The challenges her family endured, motivated Sandra to try and do some good in the world.

“All this is stuff is happening, I kind of felt like I’ve got to give it a happy ending,” she said.

Finding that happy ending took a long time.

Initially, Sandra thought she’d volunteer at a rehabilitation hospital. But with a busy work and family life, she kept postponing looking into doing it.

Then on Jan. 31, 2014, she was in a serious car accident.

Sandra was driving along Pine Valley Drive, near Kirby Road, on her way to work when she hit black ice.

Her SUV slid into the gravel shoulder, flipped upside down and landed in a culvert.

As the car tumbled, her laptop bag went flying and its hard plastic wheels shattered two windows allowing icy water to come rushing in.

Trapped upside down in her seatbelt, thinking she’d never escape, Sandra prayed.

“I made a promise to the man upstairs. I said, ‘If you get me out of this car, I promise I’ll do something good,” she recalled.

Sandra isn’t exactly sure how she got out, but she knows a retired paramedic who was the passenger in a passing vehicle spotted her car lights in the culvert and rescued her.

While recuperating from her injuries, Sandra focused her efforts on finding a silver lining to her family’s tribulations.

She explored volunteering at a rehab facility and quickly realized with the time commitment involved, it simply wouldn’t work.

Then, following an encounter with her aunt, she recalled summers spent at her family’s cottage.

Her grandfather and great uncles built ramps to each of their cottages so her cousin, who was also in a wheelchair, could visit family members.

Reflecting on that memory and the challenges her mother faced, Sandra was struck with a sudden realization: “It’s portable wheelchair ramps that’s the path.”

Navy Street - a charitable organization dedicated to providing wheelchairs to people with permanent disabilities - was born.

“It’s a metaphor for another street travelled,” she explained. “A typical road is black asphalt and Navy Street is the path or a different street that a person in a wheelchair travels. It’s a different life, different obstacles, a different road to get to the same place.”

Having spent years helping her mother, Sandra understands the obstacles people in wheelchairs face every day.

“Leaving the house was huge to my mom,” she said. “Something as simple as going to a movie made her day. But for years, because there weren’t options, she became more secluded, closed the doors in her home and lived inside.”

The portable ramps, which can handle up to three steps and fold up into a suitcase size with handles for lifting, open up all sorts of possibilities.

“It’s very simple, but what it does psychologically for someone in a wheelchair to be able to go somewhere, it gives them back their life,” Mary said.

“You need to live as normal a life as possible because I think what happens when someone’s in a wheelchair most people almost give you this super-human ability to get over everything. Well, guess what, it doesn’t work that way.”

Navy Street is now accepting donations and Sandra plans to host a fundraising gala later this year.

“I just don’t want any other family, any other children to go through what we’ve gone through,” she said. “I want people to just know these (ramps) exist because a lot of people don’t know the answer.”