The Rileys gave for years; now they need help

By WILLIAM K. ALCORN

alcorn@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

A handicap/wheelchair-access ramp and porch for their home would be a life-changing addition for Linda and Gerald “Jerry” Riley.

“It would be 100 percent better,” said Jerry, who is confined to a wheelchair with Parkinson’s disease.

“Up until a year ago, he could get out of his chair, but he has been wheelchair- bound the last six months,” Linda said of her husband.

He also is pretty much confined to the living room of his home in the old Idora Park area because much of it, particularly the bathroom, is not wheelchair accessible.

They need the help of friends to get Jerry out of the house for any reason. A friend puts down two planks to get Jerry’s wheelchair down the steps from the stoop to a vehicle.

They need a wheelchair-access ramp, but they can’t afford one.

The couple said their yard and garden used to be their pride and joy — Jerry handled the garden; Linda planted and cared for the flowers.

“He said, ‘Anything fancy, you do,’” she said with a laugh. “Our property used to be so well-kept, people would take pictures.”

Now Jerry, 77, can’t get outside to work on the garden, and he won’t let Linda out of his sight.

It wasn’t always this way for the Rileys.

They helped other people.

They were foster parents to more than 200 children for more than 20 years, including Trisha Thomas, who has changed her surname to Riley, effective July 18, and who lives with the Rileys, and her brother, Christopher Carroll of Lancaster, Pa. The couple has two biological daughters, Mischelle Riley at home and Heidi Riley in California.

The Rileys used to distribute food and Christmas presents at St. Mary Franciscan Monastery in Columbiana and worked with Cathedral Outreach in Youngstown.

Now, it’s the Rileys who need help from the community.

Friends and family have organized a pancake-and- sausage breakfast fundraiser from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Sunday at St. Christine Church, 3165 S. Schenley Ave.

There also will be an auction with numerous items on which to bid, including tickets to a four-person wine tasting at the Magic Tree Pub & Eatery in Boardman and four tickets to a Youngstown State University football game of the winner’s choice. There also will be a 50-50 raffle.

People who want to donate can make a deposit in person at any Huntington Bank to the Linda and Jerry Riley Benefit Fund, or mail a check or money order to any Huntington Bank made out to the fund.

Jerry, originally from West Virginia, served in the Army in 1957, and worked for the Ohio Department of Transportation, Commercial Shearing, and the Youngstown Street Department, retiring on disability in 1985.

Linda, 67, lived in McDonald until age 16 and graduated from Niles McKinley High School in 1965. Her last 10 working years were as a home health-care aide for the elderly.

“I guess it was God’s way of preparing me to take care of Jerry,” said Linda, who, except for help supplied for two hours three days a week by the Department of Veterans Affairs, cares for her husband’s needs.

“I can go wash dishes or get a cup of coffee and sit down outside. Other than those times, I do his personal care and the housework and the yard work,” she added.

A wheelchair ramp and some work on the house would enable Jerry to go outside occasionally or take a meal in the kitchen, Linda said.

“Life would improve for both of us. Sometimes I’m awed that so many people have come forward to help Jerry. Everything is in God’s hands,” she said.