Life Before The Wheelchair

225 words

2 minute read

I was thinking today, "What did I ever do before I got a wheelchair?" and then I found this picture.  That's me at six (possibly seven) years old.  And that's definitely a stroller.

The thing is, though I do remember being a bit self-conscious (after all, one of my brothers, to my left, is also in a stroller at 18 months) I also remember loving it.  It was really comfortable and sturdy, and being as small as I was, it never felt like a tight fit.

I love finding pictures like this and fully realizing all the ways my family adapted for me.  (You can even see the edge of my walker hanging on the back of my little brother's stroller.)  Nowadays I don't know if a stroller would be seen as an acceptable adaptation in lieu of a wheelchair, especially for a seven-year-old, but this was the 1980s.

And being able to come with my brothers and sister and cousin and have cotton candy was all that really mattered to me.  We must have looked like a strange group: at least two adults, five kids under seven, two strollers and two wagons?  It was a regular parade.

But I remember being happy because everyone got to ride instead of walk, not just me.

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