In a message dated 11/9/05 1:02:02 PM, wildebus@GMAIL.COM writes:

<< 2) I guess this is Vanagon content - since my Mom can't get in the van. I

never thought, when I was getting the A.B. up and running, that my Mom

wouldn't be able to get in. She is 82, uses a cane, and her quad muscles are

very weak. I got a step stool and tried to get her in the back of the van,

but she couldn't make it with that one step and without something to hold

onto. I'm thinking of something akin to those steps with rails that roll up

to an airplane - only on a small scale. Also, I'm temporarily impecunious,

so it has to be cheap.

 >>

One black and rainy night I was driving on a notoriously bad section of road
with no sidewalks in my burg when I saw two clients from a rehabilitation
center struggling to make it home.  One was in a wheel chair and they were at a
location where more than one pedestrian fatality had occurred.  I stopped to
give aid and offered them a much appreciated lift.  I asked the paraplegic young
woman if I should lift her into the van and she told me to just stabilize the
chair.  With the wheelchair beside the slider doorway, she transferred herself
onto the floor of the van and scooted on her butt over to the rear seat then
she lifted herself into it.  Perhaps you could lay down a clean mat of some
type and your mom could use a variation of what I witnessed.

George