L.A. plumbers turn family's pipe dream into reality ( very moving story) [View all]

What started it all:
"In April, Dave — the older of the 44-year-old twins by five minutes — responded to an urgent call from a condominium's homeowners association in Burbank. There was a leak in the building's garage that other plumbers couldn't trace to its source.

Dave arrived on-site and began checking the pipes in the three-story building's various units. He eventually arrived at a condo belonging to Dorothy and John Cothran.

Dorothy, 77, showed him in. In the middle of the living room, Dave saw her son Steve, 50, propped up in a hospital bed. His right leg had been amputated below the knee because of diabetes. In the nearby bedroom was her husband, John, 78, who has Parkinson's disease.

Recalling the moment, Dave told me that he "immediately felt and saw the life stripped out of Dorothy" because of the pressures she faced.

He proceeded with his inspection of the Cothrans' bathroom. He saw an old tub unsuitable for a person with Steve's disability. He saw fixtures that made the room impossible to move about in with a wheelchair or walker."

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus-20130730,0,4880705,full.column