Long walks to work over for steadfast mom

Dec. 25--Last week, Nichole Sinclair was braving cold and rain to walk 40 minutes each way from her west Charlotte home to her job as a photographer at the Carolinas Medical Center nursery.

This week, she is driving, because a co-worker saw a bit of herself in the single mother.

Sinclair, 31, has not had a car in a long time, she said. For about eight years, she has worked for Growing Family First Foto, the company that takes pictures of newborns at CMC. Until about a year ago, she had been catching rides to work with friends, but then her schedule changed. Buses didn't run early enough to get her to work by 5:30 a.m., so she walked to the hospital, near the corner of Kings Drive and Morehead Street.

Then, in July, Sinclair was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor.

"It was hard," she said. "It was hard thinking about what might happen to the kids." She has three children: Shequoyia, 13; Brittany, 9; and Deshaun, 6. Sinclair has not needed chemotherapy and is being treated with oral medication.

Still, the medical bills hit the family hard, so buying a car was out of the question. Sinclair kept on walking. Sometimes she missed doctor's appointments and had trouble picking up prescriptions.

When the staff in the nursery unit heard about Sinclair's difficulties, they collected money and Christmas presents for the family, said nurse Carly Bruton. Then, a couple of weeks ago, Bruton found out that Sinclair didn't have a car.

"It's cold, and her and the children don't need to be walking," Bruton said. "She comes in here every day with a smile and works hard. Even with everything she's going through, she never complains. You would never know that anything is wrong."

So Bruton took $1,000 from her savings and set out to find a car for Sinclair.

"I really related to Nichole. We didn't have a car for three or four years when I was young," said Bruton. "You don't realize what a life-changing thing a car can be unless you've gone without."

While out grocery shopping this month, Bruton pulled into Fort Mill Automotive, a car lot she had passed countless times.

"A voice told me to turn in there," Bruton said. When she pulled up to the office, there was a "Closed" sign on the door. She almost turned around and went home. "The voice was there again. It told me to go in."

Matthew Rives had forgotten to turn the sign around. Bruton met with him and told him about Sinclair's difficulties. It turns out that Rives' father, Butch Rives, who owns the dealership, has the same type of inoperable tumor.

Rives said he would see what he could find in Bruton's price range. By the time she returned home two hours later, a message from Matthew Rives was waiting on her answering machine.

When Bruton called back, Rives told her he had found a maroon 1994 Ford Thunderbird and that he and his father wanted to donate it to Sinclair. Rives asked that Bruton take the money she had planned to spend on the car, and use it to cover other expenses for Sinclair.

"These people are such a blessing," Sinclair said last week, after the nurses presented her with the car and all the Christmas gifts. "Without them, Christmas was going to be really hard."

The car, Sinclair said, has changed a lot of things for her family.

"It's freedom. It has relieved a lot of stress. Everything is going to be so much better."

Esther Robards-Forbes: 704-289-6576

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.

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