Shoreview: Where everybody knows Ralph’s name: San Mateo neighborhood rallies to support injured neighbor

Janet and Tom Vaughan started a GoFundMe campaign and within five days reached their goal of raising $3,000 to help with their neighbor’s medical expenses.

While Cole and his wife insist they’re neither looking for nor are they in need of any charity, the longtime resident said he was honored to know he’s cared for.

“The idea that everybody rallied around me to give me a hand makes me feel really good. To know that my neighbors and people around are willing to reciprocate and come out and help, it’s really nice. To know that we have neighbors that are willing to step up and be heard and help their fellow man, it’s great. Especially in the world we live in today where everything is so hectic. It makes me feel really proud to be part of this society,” Cole said.

His most recent health condition — an infection caused by gallstones he’s slated to have removed later this month — required a costly ambulance ride after a nurse told him he could die if he didn’t hurry to the hospital after days of not being able to eat. But it’s just the latest incident in a long history of complications.

Cole’s been in a wheelchair since he broke his back while on a motorcycle ride with his wife in 1980.

The accident left him paralyzed, but it hasn’t seemed to hold back the U.S. Navy veteran and former longtime MJB Coffee employee.

“I volunteered at the Boys and Girls Club, I would work at the city as a volunteer with Public Works making sure we had access for wheelchairs,” Cole said. “We don’t know what the needs for a wheelchair are until you’re in one. And now that I was in one, I went to the city and worked with them.”

Outside of helping to note sidewalk and curb improvements within city limits, Cole said he was also active with the San Mateo County Transit District and advocated for the county’s Redi-Wheels paratransit program.

Now, a fractured rotator cuff preventing him from raising his arm above his head and constant back pain — for which he’s saddened to say the Department of Veterans Affairs won’t offer another surgery — have deterred him from being as active of a volunteer as he was in years past. But it hasn’t seemed to weigh too heavily on his spirits.

“I worked with the kids and at City Hall and stuff like that; and now, I do a lot of reading and drawing because right now, my back is yelling at me because of the pain,” Cole said. “You think of other things to do. Other things. You’re not just sitting at home watching TV, you’re getting around. I’ve met hundreds of people.”

One of his favorite pastimes is to visit the VA hospital in Palo Alto during the winter holidays. There he meets with and draws portraits of some of the patients, leaving them with a gift they can send to their families for Christmas, Cole said.

“It’s just something that I can do to give back to the community. And now, it really has turned out nice because everybody has heard of me and when I needed them, they came and rallied around me,” Cole said.

Janet Vaughan said she and her family have definitely been affected by Cole’s infectious spirit for life. He’s taught her son how to draw, always seems to have a candy to pass out or a treat to give their dog and his enthusiastic “hello!” made the neighborhood seem welcoming, Vaughan said.

“Literally, he’s one of the first neighbors we met when we moved in and he’s just the most positive, encouraging, friendly person I’ve ever met. Especially for someone in his situation. He never seems to be down about anything and he’s always giving to others,” Vaughan said. “He’s just an amazing man and I can’t imagine what his medical bills have been throughout his life. And the reason I started the GoFundMe was we always wanted to do something to help him in some way.”

Appropriately entitled “Everybody Loves Ralph!” Vaughan said she’s pleased to know others care for him as much as her family does.

“I’m not surprised because Ralph knows so many people and everybody loves him, just like the tagline said,” Vaughan said. “But I was very humbled and it makes me feel very proud to live in this neighborhood.”

samantha@smdailyjournal.com

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