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Meeting With Others
Written by Tom on Monday, July 13, 2009
A while ago, I asked Sean if he had any contacts in France with other transabled folks. He kindly and swiftly introduced me to someone via Email. Let’s call this chap Friend One.
Contact was quickly established with Friend One. We soon had a chat on the telephone, and it turned out that he lives within a 2 hours drive range from where I live. Great. Friend One was as eager to meet as I was. He set it up to come to my town within a few days. He had planed to spend the afternoon wheeling around my town and to meet me after work. This is just what happened. We had agreed to meet at a tramway stop right in the town centre, and he would be sitting in his wheelchair. I turned up right on time, and there he was!
I had met and been to places with wheelers before, but they all had real disabilities. They were hopelessly wheelchair bound, and none of them were really happy about it, even though they did their best to “stand” up to their misfortunes. They all had lived through accidents and injuries and their lives had been tossed around a fair bit. This time around, the encounter was of a very different nature indeed, as I knew Friend One was getting around in a wheelchair by choice* and that he enjoyed it thoroughly (we’d been talking a wee bit about it on the telephone, oh, just for an hour or so). I knew I would enjoy seeing a guy in a wheelchair too, and I wouldn’t have to repress the urge of watching and talking about it!
He had parked out of town and taken the tramway. Thrilling. We had a drink at a café’s outdoors terrace, chatting casually for a while. Then we determined to take the tramway back to my place, which we did. The tramway system here is 100% accessible, quite extraordinarily (usually, when a place is said accessible in France, you’ll usually find a couple of 7” high steps to welcome you and your wheels, or a 10 yards strand of old fashioned, very nice looking, football size pebble paving with 4” deep, 4” wide gaps in between). The road towards the tramway stop gently slopes down on a few hundred yards. As we walked/wheeled to the stop, the train was coming. “Run”, I said, “we can get that one!”. Easy for him, he just had to slide down the slope - he was bloody fast as I ran behind. I hadn’t foreseen how fast he would be.
On the way home, a car was parked across the curb, blocking the way (this is France, remember?). Great moment of excitation! Friend One (who practices wheelchair basketball and has some interactions with various PWD rights associations) had some “don’t block my way” type of stickers with a wheelchair symbol on them. There he sticks one of those on the side window of the offending car. I loved that! Later, we got to the local supermarket to get things for diner. Wow, they actually know how to say hello in there? It’s just that you need wheels to deserve it. I’ll think about it. At the check out, we also got special treatment. The supervisor walked up to us and made sure Friend One was given priority at the disabled desk. Perhaps I should seriously consider getting a set of wheels, huuuhhh.
Now, my home is not designed for wheelers at all. I live in a three-storeyed (that is, street level plus 2 floors above it) terraced house. No matter which way you look at it: in this house, you spend your days going up and down stairs. I think my thigh muscles have doubled since I moved in. Hence, as soon as Friend One got passed the front door (he managed the 1” step and the 1,5” aluminium bar just after it with great skill), a miracle had to happen, because as soon as you get in, you have to go up the narrow, curved stairs. We both mumbled a short prayer, and there he was, standing on his legs! He even took his chair upstairs for me to try it out in the living room. A great chair, that is.
Needless to say, we had a great evening sharing experiences and stories. The whole experience was a success. Thank you, Sean, for your role in this.
Friend One happens to know a number of other people around France and Europe. Wheelers and casters. I was never attracted to casts and had never considered trying to make friends in that area of speciality. But he gave me a few contacts. Thus, I met Friend Two.
But that will be for another post.
* Friend One considers his wheelchair use like a hobby of sorts, allbeit very seriously and commitedly
Tags: Wheelchair
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1 On 15 July, 2009, M said:
You are fortunate to have found friends and people to share experiences and thoughts with “live”. My outlet is through this site, to which I am infinitely grateful. I hope to have such an opportunity on day