Family gifts late daughter’s specialized wheelchair to boy with cerebral palsy after thieves stole his
WCCO
By David Schuman
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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A mother had her son’s expensive, specialized wheelchair stolen while shopping for groceries.
After WCCO shared their struggle, a family stepped up and offered hope through a heartbreak of their own.
The Sauer family were strangers to Tamika Williams until Wednesday, when they became superheroes for her and her own Superman, her son Samajae.
He has cerebral palsy and can’t move or talk. He’s been without his custom-equipped wheelchair for almost two weeks, when thieves brazenly made off with Tamika’s car from a parking lot.
“It’s huge. You can’t go anywhere without the chair,” said Susan Sauer.
The Sauers know as well as anyone. Their daughter, Britney, had cerebral palsy. She died six years ago.
When they saw WCCO’s story, they knew they had to give Britney’s chair to Samajae.
“It’s kind of hard to let it go because that was Britty,” said Paul Sauer. “But at the same time it was more important for Tamika and her son to have it.”
“Just the sentimental part that’s coming from that chair touched me,” Tamika said. “This chair got an angel that once used that chair, so I know that it’s an angel that’s guiding just him being in that chair.”
Tamika says she and her son can take back their lives that he’s fully mobile again.
“It’s a huge extension of a person’s life with cerebral palsy, so we needed to act quickly,” said Ali Sauer.
“Just felt amazing,” Susan said. [“Tamika is] definitely a mama bear mom.”
Gillette Children’s Hospital will modify the chair to fit Tamika’s son, who’s a patient of theirs.
It’s the same hospital that treated the Sauers’ daughter, and they said it was bittersweet to be back.
No arrests have been made yet in the car theft.
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