Strangers help family have a life

More than two weeks later, the calls and e-mails keep coming.

People want Mary Clayton and her son, Josh, to see each other. For a meal, for a night of TV. For the long run.

So complete strangers have called, written and donated some $25,000 toward a chair lift that will allow Mary and Josh to share the same room, and the same life.

It all came from a column I wrote last month.

Mary, 59, a former King County Superior Court employee, has multiple sclerosis, and has been all but bedridden for years.

Last fall, she and her son, Josh, 35, a single father to 9-year-old Tyler, bought a house in Milton.

Mary was set up in a room on the lower floor, and Josh and Tyler lived above. Josh could care for his mother, Mary could look after Tyler, and together, they were a family.

That ended one morning in January, when Josh hit a patch of black ice on his way to his job at a Federal Way auto shop. His car went off the road and rolled, and Josh was paralyzed from the waist down.

They have seen each other twice since then: On the day Josh came home from the hospital and on Mother's Day, when friends carried Josh downstairs to see Mary.

Otherwise, they communicate by cellphone — one floor apart.

Their only relief from this suburban prison is a chair lift that could raise and lower a wheelchair between the two floors.

But it would cost $30,000 that they don't have.

Well, they do now. Most of it, anyway.

Times readers have donated some $10,000 to an Evergreen Bank account set up for the Claytons. Not only that, the June 26 column was picked up by KOMO-TV's "Problem Solvers"; viewers donated just over $12,000.

"Strangers, strangers, strangers," Mary Clayton said with disbelief when we spoke the other day. "We are overwhelmed with the generosity and kindness and blessings.

"So many of the letters and cards relay that we are not the only ones that have situations that are unforeseen and difficult," she said.

Nayda Wallace, of Mill Creek, was one of the people who donated. I called her to ask why, what moved her to do so?

"There are lots of people who have one disabled person in the family and they rally around to take care of things," she said. "Josh Clayton did that. And for him to become paralyzed ... it just broke my heart."

She also felt for Tyler Clayton, who has been serving as a go-between for his father and grandmother. Hardly a role for a kid, Wallace said.

But through this experience, Tyler has witnessed, firsthand, how generous people can be, despite what is being called The Great Recession.

"It sends a great message," Mary Clayton said.

The family still needs about $5,000 to cover the cost of the concrete pad on which the lift will sit.

Once they have that, the design, approval and construction should take six weeks or so.

But once the lift is finished, the Claytons have big plans: "We plan on sending thank-you notes," Mary said, "and we plan to have a barbecue and invite everyone who has contributed to us and say, 'Here's what you did.'

"It has been a long year," she said. "But I feel like the tide has turned."

Nicole Brodeur's column appears Tuesday and Friday. Reach her at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.

She never ceases to be amazed.