WARNING: VIDEO CONTAINS OFFENSIVE LANGUAGE
THUNDER BAY — Jamie Mendek could hardly get his mind around what his lifelong friend secretly did for him during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Facebook video that is now going viral shows Mendek's utter surprise in July when Franco Daniele revealed the elevator he installed in his home so his buddy could remain in his wheelchair and get upstairs when he comes to visit.
"I couldn't process it," said Mendek, who broke into prolonged, uncontrollable laughter upon realizing what Daniele had done.
Daniele was able to keep the project a secret among his old high school crowd for two years.
"We finally got to do the reveal after a couple years of building my house and the pandemic keeping us apart," he said.
Daniele explained to TBNewswatch that Thunder Bay isn't the most accessible community because "a lot of grandfathered places are unable to add accessibility. I just wanted him to be able to come to another place."
The two men first met when both were in Junior Kindergarten.
Mendek, a 33-year-old software developer at Tbaytel, has used a wheelchair his entire life.
He told TBNnewswatch that Daniele is "a wonderful person with a history of generosity and kindness to the people he cares about," but putting an elevator in one's home "just isn't something people do."
He knew his friend was building a house, Mendek said, however, "I didn't know the elevator existed. That's why I'm in such shock in that video."
He said members of a small circle of about six friends had to keep the secret, something he's amazed that some of the more talkative ones were able to do.
The cost of installing this kind of elevator can range up to $40,000.
