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Home / Thoughts / Sean's Thoughts / Another meeting

Another meeting

Written by Sean on Monday, October 10, 2005

I went grocery shopping (and the trip was nowhere as eventful as my story Trip to the grocery store), and as I pulled into the lot, I noticed a minivan, or rather an extra big minivan, with seats in the back. A guy was standing by the back door, and pulling out a wheelchair. I looked in the van, and no one else was in!

So I couldn’t help wondering, who’s the chair for? Why would a guy be walking from the driver’s seat to the back of an extended mini van, to pull a wheelchair and put it together? Strange things indeed. Of course, the thoughts that come to mind immediately is “is this guy for real?”. But of course, there are more for real people that have disabilities that are different than the “usual”. It’s one of the things my late wife used to tell me. Disabilities come in many different colours and types. Even two people with the same disability/level of injury will be affected differently. You really can’t tell just by looking.

And so this guy unloaded a chair which looked pretty good. Nice sturdy frame, big fat wheels with knobby tyres. A chair meant for business on outdoor terrain. As he sat in his chair and wheeled towards the entrance, I noticed his chair was a Melrose, and I think it’s the Extreme ( Melrose’s Extreme ), but that’s another story entirely.

He seemed to be aiming for the store, but as I was unloading, he appeared in front of me. He was curious about my chair :) We discussed pros and cons of our chairs, bragged a bit here and there. Fun. We went into the store together, kept talking in front of the tomatoes, with avocadoes on one side, asparagus and lettuce on the other side. I’m sure we were an inconvenience to other shoppers that just wanted to grab produce and go, but had to fight a couple of wheelchairs.

He told me he was an incomplete L2, and that he could walk, though had no control over his ankles (which is why he was wearing almost knee high leather boots (like motorbike boots, with steel toes). We talked some more, but I was actually in some rush, so had to get away. I would imagine the guy was probably a farmer, or something like that, to need such a sturdy chair. He had the hands of a manual labourer, and the calluses typical of a guy who pushes a chair a lot without gloves

I still reckon he might be transabled. If that’s the case, it would be nice to reconnect. Oh hummm.