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Home / Thoughts / Sean's Thoughts / Getting a new chair

Getting a new chair

Written by Sean on Friday, December 2, 2005

A friend got her first wheelchair. She was so excited at the prospect, and is still revelling in the joy of getting it. I’m looking back to my first chair and can’t help thinking at how different things were for me. I’m glad it’s "easier" for her than it was for me.

I remember getting my first chair. It was a bit of an impulse, really. I’d wanted a chair for a long time. I had managed to rent a chair a few times. Renting was good, but the mere fact I knew I had to give it back was making the experience less fun. One day, I just rang the store that rented it and asked if they’d be open to sell. Sure enough, they were willing, and I got to keep the chair. It was a Quickie GPV, quite banged up, an almost glow-in-the-dark shade of lemon yellow.

The thing is, there was no built up and excitement at the prospect of getting the chair. It was a bit spur of the moment and it wasn’t the first chair I used seriously. I also had no way to investigate the types of wheelchairs available. And there weren’t that many rigid frame wheelchairs on the market at the time. And I had no one to talk about my joy at getting and keeping my own chair.

Having people to share joys with is a big part of the enjoyment. As it is, for me, it was a silent and lonely process. I didn’t have time to build expectations, and I had no one to build expectations with. But to be part of Sophie’s experience of getting a chair gave me back that experience for my own self in a way. Perhaps it’s living vicariously, I don’t know, but it’s good.