LIFE Beaver County Participant Triumphs Over Challenges Through Faith and Determination

Despite facing medical and personal obstacles, 84-year-old LIFE Beaver County participant, Rebecca Wiley, has successfully regained her ability to walk. Wiley’s journey stands as a testament to the remarkable influence of her unwavering faith, formidable determination, and the dedicated support provided by the LIFE Beaver therapy team.

In 2021, Wiley joined the LIFE Beaver program as a participant. Although she was mobile at that point, she was confronted with medical difficulties that brought about changes to her lifestyle.

“When I met her she was mobile around her three-story home,” explains Maria Williams, LIFE Beaver occupational therapist. “She was attending dialysis three days-a week, but she was slowing down a bit.”

Her body grew weak and over time she lost her ability to stand or walk.

“At the time, it felt that perhaps this was going to be her new ‘normal’ for her mobility,” says Williams.

Wiley is a woman of deep faith, which she credits to helping her walk again. To find where her faith comes from, it can be traced back to how she grew up. Born in Greensburg, Alabama, Wiley was homeless as a child and did not know her mother or her father.

“I had been going around in Greensburg knocking on the doors asking if people wanted to be my mommy,” says Wiley.

A woman by the name Sophie Pickett took her in when she was young, providing her with a home.

“This family came down and had buried her mother and she (Pickett) looked at me and she wanted me.”

The Pickett family raised her until she was around 10 years old. That is when, as Wiley explains in 1949, the family of Susie and James Little drove to Alabama and took her back to Aliquippa where she was raised and has lived ever since.

“I look back, God was with me all my life. I don’t know my mother and my dad, but I thank god for the ones that took me in.”

Wiley’s early life journey built the foundation of her belief in the power of the Lord and the motivation that has helped her overcome even the most daunting of life’s challenges.

Struggling with the inability to walk or stand, she encountered a multitude of new challenges that forced her to adapt various aspects in her life.

”At my house, I had to slide out my wheelchair and on to the floor to get into a Hoyer lift,” says Wiley. “I laid in bed there for a whole year. I couldn’t get up in the beginning, someone (from LIFE Beaver) had to come and wash me, get my clothes on and feed me. They would have to come back at lunch time and supper time and then put me to bed. I cried because that wasn’t me.”

However, she never lost hope that one day she would regain her mobility. Wiley’s therapy team at LIFE Beaver consisted of therapist Becky Lewis, Jim Hartman and Beth Lozier, who worked tirelessly with her, helping her regain her strength and mobility.

“The therapy team is good,” says Wiley. “They work with you, they are patient with you and helped me get on the bar to help strengthen my arms and legs.”

When she started to walk again, a wave of emotion came over her.

“It felt good to walk again because I was in the wheelchair and the Hoyer lift;” says Wiley. “When I started to walk again, I started to go back to church because I missed church for a whole year.”

Now regularly attending the LIFE Beaver County center, Wiley has much to be thankful for and praises the LIFE program as whole.

“They are all special, everyone has different needs,” Wiley explains about LIFE’s encompassing needs to all participants. “Everybody doesn’t have that program, it’s a good program. They see after you, if I need medicine, it’s there.”

The appreciation she holds, extends to the LIFE transportation team as well.

“They are very important because I don’t drive,” explains Wiley. “They call before they come to let me know are they coming. They come to pick me up and take me to dialysis three times a week. Other times someone is coming into the home or if I have an appointment for my eyes, my teeth, they come and get me. I don’t have to worry about anything, just get on the bus. Isn’t that wonderful?”

Wiley embraces her regained independence and has set new goals for herself; to walk further and not user her walker.

“I keep a good attitude, a good thought that knowing my God is going to work it out.”

For more information about LIFE, call (412) 356 -1673 or visit https://lifeviecare.org/

Serving Armstrong, Beaver, Butler and Lawrence Counties