| Current mood: |  thoughtful |
My Aunt has fast wheels!
This post is an entry in the Disability Blog Carnival #6.
My older sister is a wheeler. She wasn't always a wheeler, but from from when she hit puberty on she became less and less mobile. She's always been really tough though. She wouldn't give up until she absolutely had to. I have to say, it doesn't bother me. In fact she is more able in all ways that matter than almost anyone I know. I rely on her for alot.
The extended family was a different story. I have been repeatedly asked if she's "faking it". I don't know what they expect me to say. The first time I politely assured them she wasn't. The second time, at our own house, I had enough. I went off on them. Then I stormed in the house, bumping into my mother on the way. She asked what happened and I told her. She reamed them to and said they could leave if they felt that way. Considering that my mother took a long time to come around, it was amazing to see. The only reason I told my sister about the incident at all was because I knew my mother's reaction would make her happy.
Living with my sister is awesome. Many of my friends think it must be hard, but as long as I make sure the things she needs don't get "cleaned up" beyond her reach it's fine. I put coffee in the fridge, make sure the kitchen chairs aren't in her way, and that food isn't in the cabinets she can't get to. Our friends, who are always over, have mostly learned to keep things where they should be. Usually chairs get left around at the worst and get in her way.
Now, I hardly think she is incapable of taking care of herself. She has me so trained, I often don't realize she can't do something. She's better at most things than I am. We went shopping at Sam's, a bulk supplier, while I was massively pregnant. Instead of using one of those drive-able carts (that I'd likely crash) I used one of the wheelchairs they had. We had a blast wheeling around the store, but we got a lot of strange looks. I've heard that one wheeler gets a lot of offers of help, but multiple wheelers intimidate people.
We we grocery shopping recently and apparently because I was "letting" her bag people were glaring at me. My back was turned so I didn't notice, but she did. She worked at a grocery store and is very good at bagging. She tells me there is a "way" to do it. I just toss stuff in a bag.
It has been an interesting challenge since my daughter was born. My sister takes a whole shift with the baby and watches her for over 12 hrs on days that I work. We did research on things we can get to help before she was born and found that while there are articles on how people can help disabled parents there is nothing on disabled people helping AB parents. We got a sling carrier she can use in the chair, and arranged the furniture so she could get to it. She can just barely use the changing table because it's too tall, but she is fully capable of taking care of the baby. Admittedly I get a little worried when she wheels around with the baby laying across her lap, but I am worried about the baby throwing herself off, not my sister dropping her.
Since I've returned to work I've gotten several disbelieving, not negative, reactions. They are amazed that my sister can take care of her. It never occurred to me that she wouldn't be able to.
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diaryofroses) wrote,
