My son was born with two letters in his genetic code that have handed him over to a slow untimely death. First he stopped talking, then swallowing, then walking, then smiling. Soon he'll get pneumonia, be doused in drugs and die of respiratory failure like our son who died before him.
Every day nurses come to help us out. It's a blessing. When they're not around my life turns inward and I become someone I don't recognize.
The nurses park on the street because it's easier that way.
Today someone from the Highway Department informed me that no one is allowed to park on the street at any time from November through April. When I said there were no signs he said there was one on a different street. When I said that getting my son on the bus was a project, he said the nurse could move her car as well as anyone else.
This man has clearly not cared for a child in a wheelchair.
Tonight I took three of my kids to swim lessons but Christian stayed home because he was busy having a seizure and being suctioned. I spend my free time changing my 10 year old's diapers, logging bowel movements, checking paperwork, absorbing opinions, and washing things soaked with urine. I've lost friends because I had to learn to care when my healthy kids did things they shouldn't. It never seemed that serious.
A nurse parking on the street was a small thing to make my life easier. Sure my husband could wake up at 7 am and shovel a spot for the nurse, then go back and 8:30 and shovel for the wheelchair. Certainly the bus could position the wheelchair lift so it wouldn't hit the nurse's car, or she could block in our minivan so as to not block the wheelchair's path. Surely we could juggle it all.
But in the list of complications it was one thing that made my life a little easier and someone took it away from me.
Then right before bed I decided to look up the ordinance, which actually says that no one can park on the street from 7 pm to 7 am, which our nurses don't anyway. Then I wondered why this man came to my door and just felt defeated. In so many areas of my life I can take things as they come but as they pertain to Christian I fly off the handle.
I guess I'm just damaged that way.
In any case, Town of Ogden, your ordinance can be found here. And as you're going door to door reminding people of this ordinance they may already be following, cut the people with ramps a little slack. Their lives are complicated.
