Sometimes the part-time receptionist at Ressler Chevrolet Inc. pulls up her pant leg and shows people her right leg and her toes.

Jeri Ford, 59, is that proud of her new leg and that she has toes again. The new limb was a gift from her co-workers who pooled their money to buy a state-of-the-art prosthesis to replace her antiquated one.

Ford, who had to have her right leg amputated in 1991, has worked at Ressler since 1999, and for years, she has been getting along with what Kirk Perman, Ressler's general sales manager, describes as a "goofy peg leg."

The old one is a solid piece, about 10 pounds, no moveable anything. To keep it on, there's a belt around her waist. To walk, she'd couldn't just walk normally. "She always had to swing her leg," Perman said.

The ill-fitting leg also wasn't comfortable, didn't fit her shrinking stump, which had changed size because her muscles had atrophied.

Perman noticed it seemed hard for the "wonderful employee" - who seems to care so much about everyone else and their welfare - to do such things as walk up the office steps.

Perman said he thought about it for a couple years, trying to help Ford afford something better. About a month ago, he approached Ressler owner Dave Ressler about his idea to help pay for an upgraded leg. Perman said Ressler's reaction was an immediate yes, and he told Perman to find out the cost.

Initially, Ressler was planning on paying for it himself, but as employees heard about it, they wanted to help, Perman said.

When Perman called around to get prices - quietly, so Ford wouldn't overhear. One call went to Hanger Prosthetics in Bismarck, which turned out to be the place where Ford gets her old leg reconditioned.

William Hineman, a certified prosthetist there, said he was flabbergasted at what the Ressler employees wanted to do.

"This never ever, ever, ever happens," he said.

Hineman knows Ford because he's the one who has been trying to keep her old leg usable even though the components were going bad and the limb didn't fit.

"It was on its last leg," he said.

He said he has many patients in the same boat who can't afford to pay the difference between what Medicare will cover and the remaining amount needed for a new limb and so just make do.

But now there is one less person who has slipped through the cracks.

Perman came up to her one day and told her about the employees' gift. He remembers seeing tears.

"I was in shock," Ford said.

Perman said she wrote a "beautiful, beautiful, beautiful," thank-you card that stated in part, "You are giving me a new beginning and a chance at a new life."

Hineman said the new leg is made of carbon fibers, the same material that the Stealth Aircrafts are made out of. It has a hydraulic movement system, and it fits by suction instead of being held up by a belt at the waist. It also has been made to have the same shape as the other leg, so her legs now match when she wears dresses or shorts instead of having one skinny real leg and one tree-trunk looking leg. And the new leg has sprayed-on skin, so it looks even more like the other leg.

Ford lost her leg in 1991. Ford, who is divorced, and has two grown sons and three grandchildren, was bitten by a cat in 1990, which started a series of problems - damage to plastic veins from an arterial bypass, then staph infection, other problems, gangrene, escalating into her right leg having to be amputated in 1991.

"It was hard to accept," she said. "I lay low for awhile."

Life was different. She remembers getting out of bed, forgetting she didn't have two legs anymore, and falling on the floor, hitting her stump. She said people, potential dating material, would shy away when they were told she was an amputee.

Her sons helped to pay for her first prosthesis, which was a bum one, 2.5 inches too short, and so that made walking even harder. When she got a second leg, which also had problems, she went to live with a son for a year so she could save money to pay off medical bills. A third leg, the "goofy peg leg," she managed to pay for.

She got serious about reading books - a new hobby to replace what had been a passionate interest of hers, bowling. In her bowling heyday, she had bowled a 267 and was a member of the 600 Club, which meant she had managed 600 points in three successive games.

She dreamed though of bowling again, and so with the "peg leg," joined a league in 1998 at Midway Lanes. Midway owner Jim Mellon helped to show her how to adjust her game since she wasn't able to slide anymore and had to wear safer tennis shoes instead of bowling shoes.

She bowled for a year, accomplishing her goal to bowl again, but then stopped participating, in part because she didn't think she was contributing to the team with her "beginner scores" in the low 100s.

She doesn't think she'll attempt bowling again, even with the new leg, but she's still having a ball.

With the new leg, she walks like everyone else.

"Nobody's going to know I'm an amputee," she said.

(Reach reporter Virginia Grantier at 250-8254 or at vgrantier@ndonline.com.)