Mississippi Senate Medicaid expansion bill would slash number of people House bill would have helped. See how much
NEWS

Ridgeland police labor for love for 'family'

For years, Martha Stigger has had to enlist help from her neighbors to get her husband Willie's wheelchair out of their mobile home. Not anymore. She's a member of the Ridgeland police family.

Therese Apel
Clarion Ledger

For years, Martha Stigger has had to enlist help from her neighbors to get her husband Willie's wheelchair out of their mobile home.

Chad Brooks (left) and Lt. Brian Myers in the early stages of building a handicap ramp for Martha and Willie Stigger of Flora.

The tiny set of front steps made the job prohibitive for one person, and with Willie's medical conditions, Martha was having to do that fairly regularly.

One day she was doing her job as a custodian at Ridgeland Police Department when, in the course of a discussion, she mentioned that struggle to an officer. She was told almost immediately, "We can build you a ramp."

She thanked him and said she didn't have the money to buy the supplies, and the quick response was, "We'll do it."

"I was just overwhelmed," she said. "I went and cried by myself. I'm overwhelmed now that they'd do that for me and my husband, and they don't even know him."

Lt. Brian Myers said Cpl. E.J. Wilkerson spearheaded the project of collecting money for the supplies, and when he was promoted and transferred to the night shift, Myers took over. It was a simple decision, he said.

"Mrs. Martha is a sweetheart, and she's always there for us," he said. "She cleans up after the police department, and I've heard that the police can be pigs."

On Thursday, Myers and his best friend, Chad Brooks of Laurel, went and bought the supplies with the money collected from the employees of RPD. Equipped with the tools they needed and a large flatbed trailer, they went to the Stiggers' mobile home and got to work. Brooks had built handicapped ramps in New Orleans and on the Mississippi Gulf Coast after Katrina, so even though it had been a while and he'd never met Martha, he brought the game plan.

"I got the rust off, but it's all coming back," he said. "(Brian and I) are best friends, like brothers, and if he says she's a good woman and needs our help, that's good enough for me."

While Myers and Brooks worked, Martha went to work and then to the hospital to see about Willie, who will hopefully be home this weekend.

"I think they’re chosen by God," Martha said. "People that you think should help you don’t always, but sometimes people that you’ve got around you, you don’t know exactly how they feel about you. I was just thinking I’m a custodian, I’m just a worker, but I was so shocked that all of them did that."

Chief John Neal said Martha has always been, and will always be, part of the RPD family. She has been their custodian for about six years, but for a while she was working through a company. When there were some complications with that job, the department didn't want to lose her, so the city made a position for her.

"She comes to work at 6 a.m. and knows what her duties are and what her mission is, and there’s never a bad day in her life that she puts on display," Neal said. "It prides me to have a department of men and women who when they see the need of one of our family members, to recognize a need she has and something that will make her life easier, they donate their own money to help out a fellow employee."

Martha said she considers Myers a 'Godsend,' and that she's grateful that she was allowed to work at RPD six years ago. It was completely by accident, she said, when another woman was injured and Martha was supposed to work there until the woman came back. She never did.

"I heard a couple of them say I’m part of their family, and I do feel like God sent me out there for a reason," she said. "I love them just like they love me. It's got to be love. What else could that be?"

"She is part of our department, and we want to take care of her just like we take care of our community," Myers said.

Contact Therese Apel at tapel@gannett.com. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.