Elizabeth's Journey, Part Eight: Shared bond and goal

Elizabeth Taylor Lentz was surrounded by women in wheelchairs.

They were everywhere: rolling down the halls of the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel in Grand Rapids, riding in the elevators, eating in the restaurants.

They were educated — some pursuing doctoral degrees, many having lobbied their legislators for changes to laws that protect people in wheelchairs.

They were beautiful: Ms. Maine had blond curls and looked to Elizabeth a bit like a Barbie doll. Ms. Hawaii — Elizabeth's daughter, Ivy, took a particular shine to her — had long reddish-brown hair and kind brown eyes.

"Ms. Hawaii loves animals, and I love animals," Ivy said during their weeklong stay in Michigan in August. "She's my friend."

All the women were passionate about advocating for people who use wheelchairs. Their enthusiasm had led them to compete for the titles of Ms. Wheelchair from their respective states, then to raise the necessary funds — for Elizabeth, $3,000 — to travel to and compete in the Ms. Wheelchair America pageant.

The Ms. Wheelchair America organization is a not-for-profit that has run the pageant since 1972. The winner spends a year traveling around the United States, sharing her story and advocating for people — particularly women — in wheelchairs.

Roughly 1.6 million people in the U.S. who live outside of institutions use wheelchairs, according to the University of California's Disability Statistics Center. Women make up the majority — almost 60 percent, according to the center.

At the pageant, women in wheelchairs are not judged on their looks but rather on their ability to advocate for wheelchair users. A panel of five judges considers each contestant's achievements and ability to act as a spokeswoman.

Raising funds

After winning the title of Ms. Wheelchair N.C. in April, Elizabeth was poised to go to Michigan for the national competition.

First, though, she had to raise the money to enter and cover her travel expenses.

Elizabeth, a receptionist at Carolina Veterinary Specialists, an emergency veterinary hospital on Hanes Mall Boulevard, started first with her workplace. When her clients and the veterinarians there found out about the pageant, they started gathering money to help her go.

Two veterinarians at the hospital gave her $500. Clients and co-workers gave her $5, $10 and $20. One delivery man threw her a couple bucks.

Still, a few weeks before the pageant, Elizabeth had not raised the necessary amount.

Rick Sylvester, who owns Sylvester and Cockrum Inc., where Elizabeth's father has worked for decades, filled the $1,000 gap.

He had several reasons.

"One is that her father has been such a loyal employee and one of the most outstanding. And he's been with us about 25 years," Sylvester said. "And two, I can remember talking when I would call, years and years ago when Beth was a little girl, and she would say 'Just a moment,' real sweetly, 'I'll get my dad.' So I've talked with her on the phone several times over the years.

"I think very highly of the Doug Taylor family. My partner feels the same way I feel. I talked to him, and he said, 'Let's donate for her to go.'

"Her dad and her brother and her family — they're just good people."

Sylvester's son is a paraplegic, but he said that did not affect his decision to donate.

And so, on Aug. 1, Elizabeth, Ivy and Elizabeth's mother, Pat Taylor, packed up Elizabeth's Jeep and drove north on Interstate 77, then northwest across Ohio, to Grand Rapids. Elizabeth was 31. It was three years after the motorcycle accident in June 2008 that left her mostly paralyzed from the waist down.

When she arrived in Michigan, Elizabeth was overwhelmed.

"All these women, and they are all in wheelchairs, and their stories, though, are so different from mine," she said.

Ms. Hawaii, Susannah Rice-Kamanu — Ivy's friend — is 41 and a partial paraplegic who ended up in a wheelchair after a shooting 20 years ago. Ms. Wheelchair Pennsylvania, Josie Badger, is 28 and has spent most of her life in a wheelchair as a result of muscular dystrophy.

A moment of awe

The pageant week started with seminars and discussions about the Americans With Disabilities Act, something Elizabeth had already researched. Ms. Maine, Monica Quimby, told Elizabeth how she had lobbied for and helped write laws for the state of Maine to force towns and cities to be more accessible to people in wheelchairs.

One night, the pageant contestants went to the auditorium at the Grand Rapids Public Museum and watched a documentary about the Ms. Wheelchair America 2010 pageant. The documentary followed five women — including Erika Bogan, a now-28-year-old paraplegic who was Ms. Wheelchair N.C. 2009. Bogan won the national title for 2010. (Alexandra McArthur, also from North Carolina, won the title for 2011.)

The documentary touched on issues that Elizabeth had become all too aware of: learning to use catheters to relieve herself or learning to use the bathroom on her own. Sex. Romantic relationships. How she saw herself as a woman.

The documentary showed one woman surfing, another skydiving. Elizabeth, who loved horseback riding and four-wheeling, sat in awe.

"They were doing everything," she said. "I knew I could do those things, too, if I wanted to."

That night, Elizabeth made her final preparations for the Ms. Wheelchair America gala. She would be required to make a two-minute speech about what issue she would focus on if she won the title.

Elizabeth knew she wanted to tell the audience and judges about her daughter, about the way Ivy pulled her from depression and into the physical-therapy room.

She knew she wanted accessibility — on playgrounds, on sidewalks, in parking lots — as her issue to push.

But when she sat down to write, the words were difficult to find.

"What I want to say is that my story can help people understand what it is like to be in a wheelchair," she said. "I'm no different from them, except I have this chair."

For two hours, she and Pat wrote and revised. Elizabeth went to bed around midnight, with most of her speech unwritten.

The next afternoon, Elizabeth pulled her chair to the hotel room vanity and peered at herself in the mirror. Her pale skin was free of makeup, and her eyes looked tired.

"I am ready to go home," she said, smiling into the mirror. "I miss my sweet tea."

Elizabeth took a brush and applied concealer under her eyes. She added a thin layer of foundation and dusted her face with powder. She smoothed on shimmery eye shadow with her middle finger, dipped a wet brush in black powder and drew a careful line against her lashes, outlining her eyes. She dipped another brush in powder and sketched color onto her eyebrows. She painted her lips crimson red.

Then, she reached for her dress. Elizabeth's Ms. Wheelchair N.C. pageant dress had been short, satin and cheerful red. This dress was short and satin, too, but it was elegant and black. Just as she had during the Ms. Wheelchair N.C. pageant in Asheville, Pat helped Elizabeth zip up the back.

Then, Ivy wheeled her out the door.

The halls outside the hotel ballroom, where the crowning gala would be held, were filled with women wearing evening gowns, hair coiffed, makeup perfect. Some wore heels; some wore pearls. One wore a small tiara. They lined up their wheelchairs, alphabetically, by state. A side door to the ballroom opened, and music began to play.

The women rolled in, one by one. One by one, they took the stage. One by one, they wheeled to a microphone to speak.

When Elizabeth's turn came, she rolled her chair to the microphone, looked out over the audience and found her mother and daughter sitting together at a table. She smiled. And she told the audience about how Ivy saved her.

Crowning achievements

Minutes later, an emcee announced that Ivy's friend, Ms. Hawaii, Susannah Rice-Kamanu, had won Ms. Congeniality. Then he announced that he would be naming the women who had made the top five. One of them would be crowned Ms. Wheelchair America 2012.

The announcer started speaking:

"Ms. Pennsylvania… Ms. Minnesota… Ms. New York."

In the crowd, 10-year-old Ivy pressed her lips together.

"Ms. Maine…"

Elizabeth smiled. She and Ms. Maine had become friends.

"Ms. Michigan."

The audience applauded and cheered for the winners. On stage, Elizabeth applauded, too. The emcee rolled through the list and, to thundering music, told the crowd that Ms. Pennsylvania, Josie Badger, won the title of Ms. Wheelchair America 2012.

Elizabeth, along with the other women on stage, applauded. When the announcements were over, she rolled down a ramp that led offstage and found her family.

At the table, her mother wrapped her in a hug.

Coming Monday: Day 9 Epilogue of Elizabeth's Journey.