Adaptive Home 'Life-Changing' For Injured Howell Veteran

HOWELL, NJ — U.S. Army Major Darlene "Dolly" Harris says she was looking for something more fulfilling when she decided to enlist in the New Jersey Army National Guard in 1988.

"I would go to work and I would go home and then I'd be now what," Harris said. After meeting a woman who was a veteran of the U.S. Air Force she saw a poster for the Army National Guard.

"That was one of my top three best decisions of my life. It was fun. It was adventurous. It was great," she said.

Harris feels that way in spite of the fact that her National Guard service led to her developing multiple sclerosis, which has forced her to use a wheelchair and other assistive devices.

"It's a brutal diagnosis for somebody who is independent and active," she said. "Life is never the same, will never be the same."

Harris has lived in Howell for 30 years and loved her home. But as her illness progressed, her home became unworkable.

The doorways were only about an inch wider than her wheelchair, so the molding around the doorways was beaten up from her hitting them. She had to rearrange furniture to accommodate the chair, and the kitchen had become unworkable because she couldn't reach anything up higher than the counters.

That's where Homes For Our Troops came in. The nonprofit organization focuses on building and donating specially adapted custom homes to veterans who have served post the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and were severely injured as a result of their service.

"Most of these veterans have sustained injuries including multiple limb amputations, partial or full paralysis, blindness, severe burns, and/or severe traumatic brain injury," the organization, which formed in 2004, says on its website. "These homes restore some of the freedom and independence our veterans sacrificed while defending our country, and enable them to focus on their family, recovery, and rebuilding their lives."

Harris was called to active duty in June 2004 and in January 2005 went to Iraq. Her job as a logistics officer with the 42nd Division included checking and recording the serial numbers on destroyed vehicles, and she said there was a burn pit on the base as well.

"You'd walk out and you're like 'oh yeah the oil fields are on fire again,' because you could smell it," Harris said. "You'd look at the water and you'd see the oil slick going down."

"There was a lot of bad exposures," she said.

Harris started suffering problems with her balance and her ability to get around.

"I was tripping and falling constantly, always looking for something to lean onto," she said. "I was active, I was fit, so obviously that was not like me."

Harris said she avoided going to the unit's medical staff because she believed that if something was diagnosed, she would be sent home and she didn't want that. She was diagnosed with service-induced multiple sclerosis in 2006.

"I knew it before I got diagnosed because all you have to do is look up symptoms on the internet," she said.

Since Harris was diagnosed, her condition has significantly declined. She cannot move her legs, and damage to her spinal cord continues to progressively limit mobility in her arms.

Those struggles along with a home not built for a wheelchair were taking a toll. Then she learned from a friend about Homes For Our Troops.

"I didn't believe her. I never thought that I'd be a candidate," Harris said.

The home they proposed to build her was beyond anything she could dream, she said.

The one-story home has about 40 customized adaptations, including roll-under countertops, pull-down shelving, an open floor plan with wider hallways and doorways, and an accessible bathroom with a roll-in shower, all designed to support her accessibility needs.

A concrete sidewalk encircles the home and will allow her to go outside and enjoy birds at her bird feeders, one of her hobbies.

"I couldn't believe how big the bathroom was" in the plans, she said. "That is just outstanding."

The whole home, which was given to her for free, "is life-changing, just life-changing," she said.

Harris was presented the keys to her new home on Dec. 13 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, and her joy and relief were audible as she gasped rolling through the front door for the first time.

And just in time for Christmas, there was a Christmas tree all decorated and lit up.

"I didn't expect that," she said.

"Homes For Our Troops is an amazing organization," Harris said. "It's just shocking that an organization would do that and then continue to do that for so many people all over the United States. They are amazing."

Homes For Our Troops builds homes where the veteran chooses to live and "continues its relationship with the veterans after home delivery to assist them with rebuilding their lives," the organization says. It has built and donated 426 specially adapted custom homes and has 66 ongoing projects. For more information, visit www.hfotusa.org.