I’m in  reclining chair hell and am hoping for a lift out of it. As many of you know,  we raised funds the other night to buy Connie a reclining lift chair which she urgently needs at the Mansion. With the help of the Army Of Good,  I ordered a Medlift version on Amazon for $899 but then discovered that it was not appropriate for the Mansion because it had a heating element, an infrared heater.

Any kind of heating element is forbidden by federal law in facilities like the Mansion, they could pose a possible fire hazard. I was about to cancel the order, when I got an e-mail saying the chair was no longer available. The money had already been deducted from my credit card, so there has been some back and forth about the refund – it hasn’t show up yet in my bank account.

But that’s another story.

In the meantime, I’ve spent many hours trawling on Amazon and other websites looking at reclining chairs without heating elements, and also, at Connie’s request, that are not leather. I read through all the specs and reviews carefully, and many of the chairs I looked at seem to draw complaints from reviewers about craftsmanship, longevity, legs out of whack, problems with remotes.

I must have looked at 25 chairs by now, and I many just show photos and no information about what the chair can do and how it works.

I see many of the reviews off of Amazon are shills,  “fake reviews,” put up by the furniture companies. They just call their advertising a review. This morning, I decided to get offline and started to call regional furniture stores that advertise reclining lift chairs. The ones I buy for the Mansion are well-made, highly reviewed, and shipped quickly. I won’t bring any junk in there.

It’s getting difficult to talk to a human any longer in America, but this situation calls for that.

There are special circumstances here – regulations governing assisted care facilities, the health  needs of the patients, size  of the patient, of the room, and space. I want to talk to somebody about those things before I spend your money and my money. I see that this chair will cost close to $1,000 before I’m done, but I couldn’t reach anyone at any of the regional stories online, I kept getting a recording telling me to go online or leave a message.

The cheaper ones simply won’t last in the Mansion and have a number of flaws.

Finally I called Bennington Furniture in Bennington, Vt. and got Roxie on the phone. She grasped the situation quickly and is texting me two or three options that would fit Connie’s circumstances and the Mansion regulations and have no heating feature or element.

She understand what we need and how much money we have and she says she can get her reclining chairs right off of the floor and over to the Mansion quickly, which would be a great thing for Connie.

I appreciate all of the support and am reminding myself that patience and persistence are what is necessary, these are the times we live in, and I can accept them or go stick my head in a hole. I embrace radical acceptance and hope to hear from Dixie soon.

I see daylight ahead.

If you wish to contribute to the Mansion Fund,  you can do so by sending a check to my post office Box, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816 or via Paypal, 12816. Thanks much.