Mike Lohr grew up in Orange and has lived in town his whole life. After he became disabled, he moved to Dogwood Village. “I love it here,” he said. “Everybody’s very friendly to me, very good. Anything they can do for me—they’ll do it.”
He has a dear friend in Brenda Burns, a native of Russell County, who moved to Orange after suffering a life-threatening car accident. Burns lived with her daughter until it became evident, she needed round-the-clock care.
She has been at Dogwood for three years and Lohr for two. They get together for meals and during bingo, craft time and social gatherings. Kind and loving, they care for each
other and for their fellow residents and the Dogwood staff. Lohr and Burns have matching Jazzy power chairs, his in blue and hers in red. They also have matching license plates— “Dynamic Duo,” a nod to their close bond. To qualify for the battery-operated chairs, they passed a test demonstrating they could drive straight ahead, up and down ramps, get on and off an elevator, and weave in and out a series of plastic cones—and then maneuver between the cones in reverse. The chairs allow for some graceful moves, apparent when Burns spun her chair in a circle in the Dogwood lobby. Asked how fast the power chairs can go, she said with a grin, “Faster than they’ll let us!”
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