I know she probably thought I was faking and you know what??? I actually felt guilty!
Probably 15 years ago, my friend and I went Christmas shopping. Two pretty young women got out of the car, and we were verbally abused for borrowing Grandma’s car with the crip plates because we were too lazy to walk from the back of the parking lot.
May pulled out some of her lupus brochures and gave
the woman an earful; when May stopped for breath, I tag-teamed with a lecture on CFS (though I didn’t have any brochures; I never liked the ones that were available from the associations).
We suggested the accuser sit in yonder sidewalk cafe and get a cup of coffee. Then when we got out of the store, she could decide whether we were really faking.
We went into one store, and each went directly to the department we planned to shop in – none of this wandering the whole store sightseeing. When we came out, one of us was leaning heavily on the shopping cart for support and the other was limping badly. No question at that point that we were legitimately entitled to park in the crip spot.
It took the combined efforts of both of us to lift May’s bag with a few
shirts and sweaters up over the side of the cart into the trunk; it would stay there till her husband retrieved it. We knew we’d never get my bag out of the trunk, so it went in the car on my lap.
The store was a block and a half from my apartment; she had to drive me home because I couldn’t make it under my own power. Even then we had to sit in the car chatting for half an hour until I had it in me to walk the couple dozen feet from the car to the couch.
I am working on a second brochure, so you can hand out the matched set when you’re doing public education.
Karen
