Text 16, 52 rader
Skriven 2004-12-20 11:56:13 av Ardith Hinton (1:153/7715.0)
     Kommentar till en text av Anybody Interested
Ärende: Another Story
=====================
          Here's another story about a wheelchair, and about what makes people
tick.  Those who don't want to hear about the former can skip to paragraph #4.

          A charitable organization had offered us free tickets to a Christmas
concert, as they had to various other families including kids with a complex &
unusual medical history.  Most of the other kids who attended are able-bodied,
so we weren't all seated together.  The theatre, however, was well designed to
accommodate people with physical disabilities.  The entrance leads directly to
a wide aisle behind the first six rows of seats.  This aisle is called row "G"
and it had eight or ten stacking chairs in it for those who wanted to transfer
or who were using walkers & suchlike.  I noticed a couple of older people with
wheelchairs there... plus one with a walker & others with canes.

          We'd been assigned one seat in row "G" and two in row "H".  They are
all numbered seats.  Nora wanted to transfer & this is a recommended procedure
for people who are able to do so.  She can walk a short distance & climb a few
stairs with help, and since the stacking chairs didn't provide the support she
needs I sat in row "G" while Nora & Dallas sat in row "H".  Another woman who
was in row "H" asked me to move "that thing".... meaning Nora's wheelchair.  I
asked who else she thought I should put it in front of, and she didn't answer.
She just ordered me to get "that thing" out of her sight.  So I asked again...
at which point her male companion said I could put it in front of him.  Later,
one of the organizers noticed that Nora was sitting in row "H" and asked us if
we'd like to sit together a little further along the same row.  We moved... we
also moved the wheelchair.  And in due course this woman & her companion moved
to the opposite side of the theatre, some ten or twelve rows back.

          Now, what I'd like to know is... who would sit in an area designated
for wheelchairs & whatnot if they're so disturbed by the sight of these things
they can't bear to call them by name?  People like one of my former colleagues
who sat beside an open window & slammed it shut without asking if anybody else
wanted it shut, I guess... or like those who sit in the smoking section of the
neighbourhood pub, the hospital patio, etc. & then expect everybody to refrain
from smoking!  If they're asked a direct question like "Why are you sitting in
such-and-such location if you feel that way?" they don't have an answer.  They
think I'm a Big Meanie... just as this woman did.  IMHO I got the answer I was
seeking, although she didn't answer directly.  Whose comfort matters less than
hers??  Everybody's.  Her male companion may buy into that notion because he's
afraid to fight with her.  I'm not.  And I want Nora to know the world doesn't
revolve around such people even if they would prefer to believe it does.  Such
people also make me appreciate even more the ones who behave differently.  The
next afternoon we went to a panto at an older theatre, where wheelchairs go on
the ends of alternate rows.  When I heard the man at the end of the row behind
us say something about Nora's flagpole... which was sticking up an inch or two
from the back of the wheelchair... I offered to remove it.  This man wasn't at
all bothered by it, however, and I'm very grateful to people like him....  :-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
 * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver BC, CANADA [604-266-5271] (1:153/7715)