Goodbye to Handicap Parking

 For the last few months I've called it my free parking sticker. Do not pass go, do not collect $200, just park in the handicap spot. But in reality it was a life saver for me. Even when first leaving the Rehab Center, to walk more than a few feet was painful and a tremendous amount of work, most of the time I was in the wheel chair, and later the walker or cane. That handicap spot was steps saved in my already drained energy level. 

    When my kids went and got the temporary sticker, which by the way has to be prescribed by a doctor, I was surprised at the expiration date. June 9, 2021. So the doctor doesn't think I'll need this past that date. At the time, it was hard to imagine not needing it, but now, it's the one thing I could agree with the doctor about. I won't be needing it any more.

   Using it gave me a whole new perspective on the word 'handicap.' Sometimes, as I had learned so much caring for my husband Todd before he died, you can't see that handicap. Even in my case, to look at me, you couldn't see it at first. But somehow cutting into my brain, caused the rest of my body not to work real well. My legs and hips couldn't figure out how to function anymore, and were so weak, they didn't respond to any signals from my operated on brain gave them. But I praise the Lord, that I no longer have that label of handicap. Even my PT in Bismarck said I was no longer in the fall risk category, so improvement were along with the date arbitrarily chosen by the doctor for length of use of the temporary sticker. Yes, I like that word Temporary, even listed on the card.

   
When I see others now, in that handicap position I know what they're going through. I know what it feels like to wish you weren't having to use the parking spot, or the handicap stall in the bathroom. You want to be free of that label, and need. So please be kind to those who are still needing those spots, they don't really want to be there either, but they need the extra help that closer parking spot gives them, or the extra room in the rest room. Don't block those who really need it, from the ability of its use.