A Cute Story about the Stairlift: Brain-child of a Little Girl

Have you ever come up with that brilliant invention, one that you just know will help thousands of people better their lives? Maybe this invention will even help someone that you know personally. If you are a good inventor, a professional, then helping your fellow man is the main objective…The money you harvest from the idea is only secondary.

This is a story of an inventor that I know personally. She is a professional; with these kinds of honorable intentions along with a really good idea. This idea was going to help her beloved Grandmother get around more easily. After watching her Grandma struggle to climb up and down the stairs, time after time, the wheels in this little lady’s mind began to turn. She imagined the escalator at the Mall. She thought of how Grandma would hold her hand as they just stood, and let this fascinating machine do all the work required to make the ascension to the upper levels. How cool it would be to have one of these installed at Grandma’s house. And how much better would it be if she could even sit down for the ride?

Allow me to brag about my wife. She developed the concept for the seated Stairlift long before I even knew her, when she was merely eight years old! Unfortunately, she hit the same brick wall that smashes up the aspirations of many professional inventors. That is; the idea at that time was not original art. Someone, probably a grown-up, had beaten this young inventor to the patent office. She realized this sad fact and even the significance of it when she first saw an ad on the telly showing some other happy Granny seated in a chair, being mechanically chauffeured to the top of the stairs in her own house. Undaunted, although disappointed, her job now was going to be getting Grandpa to have one installed!

“Grandma just had to have one of these”, she thought. This already available invention could be installed at her grandparent’s house…Their very own escalator, just like at the Mall.
Her secondary efforts were met with some resistance. “Could we afford it?” her Grandfather asked.
“Sure, that lady on the telly didn’t live in a palace, and she had one” she answered.
“Will they be able to install one on our type of stairs?” was the second question Grandpa posed.
“Just have the company come here and look at your stairs, they’ll tell you if they can do it and even how much it will cost” she intelligently and convincingly advised.

The man took his Granddaughter’s advice, and soon found out how possible and affordable it really was. In no time the Stairlift was installed, and has been used ever since to safely transport Grandma, up and down the stairs. Even Grandpa on occasion uses it, like the times when he had the flu and for those few weeks after he took a nasty fall, slipping on some ice in the driveway. This caring little girl may not have bettered the lives of thousands of people by inventing the Stairlift, but convincing her Grandparents to have one installed directly improved the quality of life for two people she loves very much.