“If I can help anyone else, I am glad to do it,” says Dottie Bradley. The Pennsylvania native has lived in Delaware County since 1956. In that time, she got married and raised four children, spending her free moments attending church and volunteering in her community.
In 2021, Bradley had a stroke. “It was a big change, so sudden,” she says, describing how she lost movement on the right side of her body, restricting her ability to walk, cook, and participate in many of the activities that brought her joy for so many years. “I used to drive a lot,” Bradley says. “But that all suddenly stopped, and I gave my car away to my grandson.”
As anyone who has had a stroke or supported a loved one through stroke recovery can tell you, the experience is deeply challenging, both physically and emotionally. But Bradley remains remarkably resilient. “I’ve been fortunate,” she says. “I get depressed once in a while about what I can’t do, but then I see people in worse shape than me, and I feel lucky.”
Her family worked to adapt to her new situation, installing a stair glide in the house Bradley and her husband lived in. In 2022, her son got her a scooter to help her get around. The concept of a mobility device took a minute to get used to, Bradley admits. “I used to see people in grocery stores using scooters,” she says. “I thought, ‘I could never do that. I will crash into things, knock them over.’ I didn’t think I couldn’t operate it.” To her surprise, she managed the scooter just fine. On her first trip to Costco, she cleared the aisles and checkout without hitting a single thing. “I thought, OK, I can do this,” she says with a laugh.
The scooter helped with travels around town, but Bradley’s twin house had steps up to the front door, making it impossible to get the mobility device into her home. “And because I have paralysis on the right side of my body, I couldn’t scoot a wheelchair since I don’t have use of both arms,” Bradley explains. “I tried to use a walker in rehab, but because of not having use of my right side, I couldn’t manage it with one arm.”
Without a means to move easily around her home, she felt trapped.
A Simple Solution
With less mobility and more free time after giving up activities that were now physically too difficult, Bradley—always a book lover—began reading more than ever. “I was reading my Reader’s Digest, which I got a few times a year, and I saw these ads for Journey,” she recalls. “It said this particular type of [electric] wheelchair was easier to operate than a big scooter.”
Bradley was sold. She saved the ad and shared it with her children. “My son had been asking me, ‘What would make life easier for you?’ And I said, ‘I’ve been looking at this chair!’” she remembers. In 2023, Bradley’s four children bought their mom a Journey Air for Christmas.
The power chair, she says, has been a game changer. “It’s much easier to use than a scooter. In 2024, my husband and I went to Florida for vacation and I took the Journey Air with us,” she says. “Because it’s so easy to fold, I could bring it right to the plane and the airline took it and then gave it back after the flight.” Navigating the steps into the house, though, could still be a challenge.
Then in 2025, Bradley’s husband broke his leg. Climbing stairs was out of the question. “We had to move him to rehab and then into my daughter’s house,” she recalls. “Our children finally said, you need a continued care community.”
A New Chapter Begins
After years in the home they bought together, Bradley and her husband moved to Maris Grove, a retirement community in southeastern Pennsylvania. The community is large, housing approximately 1,600 residents in a series of apartment buildings, and the Journey Air has proven an invaluable resource for Bradley to get from one end of the property to the other. “Even in our building, the hallways are very long—people are always stopping me to say they wish they had my chair,” she says. “In the elevators here, we have can only fit two scooters at a time. But there is room for four Journey Air chairs!”
Because it folds and transports easily, Bradley says her husband will put it in the car when he drives her to the hairdresser. She also uses it for church. “I am Catholic and I go to Mass every weekend,” Bradley says. “Afterwards, I use the Journey Air to visit people in areas of the community who can’t get to church and give Communion.” It’s something she did for 20 years prior to moving to Maris Grove and makes her feel part of her new community.
Wherever she goes, the Journey Air proves to be a big hit. “While I was in church yesterday, a lady approached me and asked, ‘What kind of a chair is that?’ I am so used to the question by now, I actually keep the brochure for it in the back of my chair!” she laughs. “I tell anyone who asks that they should try it.”
Finding Community
They say change gets harder with age, but Bradley seems comfortable navigating her new surroundings and all they have to offer. The community hosts daily activities, talks, and social outings. She chooses which ones to participate in based in part on her current abilities. “A lot of activities are physical, which I can’t do,” she acknowledges. “But I can go to movie nights, and I go to the theater and chapel. They also have talks that you can attend.”
Most recently, the community hosted a series of talks on literary giants, including Hemingway—right up Bradley’s alley, since she still reads every chance that she gets. Her latest book was The Gales of November, a historical recounting of the Edmund Fitzgerald, an American freighter that sank in a storm on the Great Lakes in 1975. “This one stayed with me,” she says.
While she still does physical therapy as part of her stroke rehab from time to time (“It’s available in my building,” she says), she finds doing things around the apartment to be just as good for exercise. “I do things like organize shelves or organize the refrigerator—my husband says I’m obsessive!”
In the evenings, Bradley and her husband go to one of the community dining halls, where they are sometimes joined by their children who still live nearby. “My Air chair fits right under the table,” Bradley says. “It’s so easy to make plans to have dinner with other people now.”
That’s not to say life’s been trouble-free: Bradley has been having issues with her foot and leg due to the stroke and is exploring surgery. Once again, she approaches the possibility of another mobility challenge with an impressive amount of resiliency and optimism. “Having a stroke taught me that I am more determined than I knew—determined to do as much on my own as possible,” she says. “But it’s nice to know that if I need help, the Journey Air is there.”
Questions about the Journey Air? Contact our customer service team at 888-404-1724.
