Community
The Longo family is a living testament to the existence of that elusive silver lining: after a string of tragedies, something good rose from the ashes in the form of Navy Street Charity
Paving NAVY STREET Every year, 400 Ontarians acquire a spinal-cord injury, and in 1983, Mary Longo was one of them. After more than three decades of coming to terms with her new reality, she’s inspired her daughter Sandra to create Navy Street, a charity that will make life easier for anyone who is wheelchair-bound
PHOTOS BY CARLOS A. PINTO / DOLCE MEDIA GROUP
Written By Amanda Storey
I
t took 30 years and a nearly fatal car accident for Sandra Longo to finally realize her calling. Sitting in the homey Woodbridge living room of her 68-year-old mother, Mary, Sandra’s features tell as much of her story as her words. Shifting from a cloudy sadness as she explains the accident that plunged Mary into paraplegia in 1983 to a sparkling, smiling hopefulness www.mycitylife.ca
while she divulges her excitement over her new charity, Navy Street, Sandra certainly doesn’t hide that her life has been something of an emotional rollercoaster. After a slew of family tragedies that almost took the lives of Sandra’s father and brother, the Longos were struck again when Mary was paralyzed while giving birth to her youngest, Liana, due to complications caused by her
epidural. In the decades that followed, Sandra had always been inspired by her mother’s experience with paraplegia and knew she wanted to give back in some way. She just didn’t know which avenue to take — until her own accident occurred in January 2013. It was a wintry morning. Sandra was driving to her job at Rogers Communications on the same country road she always took when her SUV Feb/Mar 2017
City Life Magazine
47