Over the weeks I have found numerous people that have offered to help open doors, offered to help me carry something, offered to push, but today was a little strange.
My wife wanted to go to lunch for her birthday, so we loaded up the car and headed out to Islands for a guacamole burger and their awesome french fries. They sat us at a fine table that was wheel chair accessible and we totally enjoyed our conversation and meal. As we left, I rolled out to where we had parked the van and noticed a car sitting next to us with a grandmother getting out of the passenger seat and working her way into a walker for the trip to the restaurant. With her was a mom and her two young daughters, who remained by the car as grandma headed out.
She began to give her daughters a blow-by-blow account of what I was doing. “watch how fast he can fold up that chair…look how he swings it into the van…he must have done this 100 times…see how he sits down and then swings his legs in.” It was not until I closed the door that they made their way in pursuit of grandma who had gone off to fend for herself. I looked at my wife and mentioned how wierd that had felt as she had noticed it too.
We decided they were home-schooled kids who were getting their social studies credit out of the way, but as far as I am concerned they could have done it a little less obtrusively. Standing 5 feet from a handicapped person, and speaking loud enough to be heard at a distance, is not the time to talk about them or for that matter to stare at them. It was awkward and she was rude and invasive…maybe that was why grandma walked away from them in the first place
I couldn’t agree with you more!! Have a sister who has been a paraplegic for the past 13 years I have witnessed people making comments loud enough to hear like “Oh how sad” or “Don’t you feel sorry for her?” People need to look past the handicap (wheelchair) and look at what is in the inside of a person.
By: Julie on October 29, 2008
at 1:42 pm