MONROE, La. (KNOE 8 News) - While volunteering at the Northeast Louisiana Food Bank in Monroe, arms can help you push carts and deliver the food to the bank.
But for one volunteer, Bill Bradford, he's had to do without.
This is Bradford's reality: hooks and cables instead of arms.
He's been relying on prosthetics for 26 years after an electrical accident struck him at just 29-years-old.
"I was working on a store there in Winnfield," Bradford said. "I had a piece of rebar in my hand. We was working close to transformers and they arced out and hit that rebar and went into my arms. I had a set of keys in my pocket and blew out my leg. I knew I was going to lose them because they were in bad shape. They were cooked."
But this Tullos native still had his life and Bradford said as long as he has that, he'll be helping out, like he's been doing for the last two months at the food bank.
"I'm sitting there thinking: 'And he's going to drive my vehicles. OK.'" Director for the Northeast Louisiana Food Bank, Richard King, said. "You know, the guy's got a driver's license. The State of Louisiana says he can drive so let's go."
Bradford drives as if he has no problems at all but it was a long road to accepting his loss.
Some simple pleasures in life still elude him.
"Not being able to pick up my baby girl," Bradford said. "Grandkids and just children, in general. They come up and put their hands up to you to pick up and you just can't pick them up."
But this former Marine made his life a teaching for others.
He was a prison evangelist for 11 years and still speaks to amputees today, showing them that there is still a life after amputation.
"That's just the journey," Bradford said. "Everybody's on a journey. Mine's just a little different than everybody else's."
The Northeast Louisiana Food Bank said they're in desperate need for drivers.
If you'd like to help, call them at (318) 322-3567.
