LIVING WITH A DISABILITY
I have a granddaughter who has ataxia, a form of cerebral palsy. She has a weakness in her hands, her tongue muscle and in the muscles of one leg. This means she cannot run, her fingers will not grasp smaller objects and her speech is sometimes hard to understand. She is fifteen and pretty, with a ready smile. Because of her disability, she has slipped through the cracks at school and does not possess much academic knowledge. She is a great reader however, and yearns to be like the other kids. At her age, they are all looking for after school jobs. Some of her peers have landed places at fast food outlets, to the envy of the others! But now we are thrilled that her local supermarket, in Brisbane, has given her a job, on contract for ten hours a week, for a probationary period of six months. She is so happy to be feeling so useful. Her parents are happy and grateful to the manager for giving her a chance to feel competent. She has been packing groceries into bags and even scanning; doing quite well but needing help with weighty objects. The rest of the staff are most encouraging and helpful to her, a change indeed from some other areas where she has not experienced inclusiveness, and has even been shunned. The kindness that has been extended to her has restored her parents’ faith in human nature.I have a granddaughter who has ataxia, a form of cerebral palsy. She has a weakness in her hands, her tongue muscle and in the muscles of one leg. This means she cannot run, her fingers will not grasp smaller objects and her speech is sometimes hard to understand. She is fifteen and pretty, with a ready smile. Because of her disability, she has slipped through the cracks at school and does not possess much academic knowledge. She is a great reader however, and yearns to be like the other kids. At her age, they are all looking for after school jobs. Some of her peers have landed places at fast food outlets, to the envy of the others! But now we are thrilled that her local supermarket, in Brisbane, has given her a job, on contract for ten hours a week, for a probationary period of six months. She is so happy to be feeling so useful. Her parents are happy and grateful to the manager for giving her a chance to feel competent. She has been packing groceries into bags and even scanning; doing quite well but needing help with weighty objects. The rest of the staff are most encouraging and helpful to her, a change indeed from some other areas where she has not experienced inclusiveness, and has even been shunned. The kindness that has been extended to her has restored her parents’ faith in human nature.
YOUR OWN TEETH
The young share-farmer was chatting to my father. In the old days, the depression years of the thirties. They had discussed the drought, the never-ending lack of rain; the rotten price they were getting for cream. ‘And did you notice I’ve got me new snappers?’ he...
CONTENTMENT
CONTENTMENT When asked what was the main attribute that contributed to her longevity, my ninety-eight year old grandmother would retort quite defiantly, ‘Contentment!’ This rather puzzled the younger ones, as she had led such an isolated life on a country dairy farm,...
THE CROWS AT BUCCAN
Recent news about crows menacing humans reminded me of my school days when Marty, Joan and I would walk barefoot the five kilometres from our home on Buccan Hill to the Logan Village School. The first hundred or so metres down the long hill were safe enough, but then...
SUNFLOWERS
As she does, my daughter Katy brought me a bunch of seven huge sunflowers. She knows I love their brightness. But more than that, they remind me of my early school days.Barefoot, we would walk the five ks from the farm at Buccan to the one-roomed school at Logan...
REMEMBERING OLD SCHOOL DAYS
How I love reading of the old days in the Tamborine Bulletin! Not only does it inform me; it sometimes takes me back to my childhood at Buccan and my school days at Logan Village. This time, I was transported to the one-teacher school where headmaster Mr Alec Brown...
ENAMELLED PLAQUE
During the last war, my parents befriended two American soldiers, brothers from Idaho. We became very fond of them and were devastated when the younger one lost his life in the fierce fighting in New Guinea. I wrote to his mother until she died and vowed to visit the...
FAIR EXCHANGE
The doorbell woke me from my midday nap. I groggily answered the front door. The pleasant looking young man smiled at me. ‘My wife and I were going past your place,’ he said, ‘and we noticed all the oranges under the tree. I wondered if you could spare a few? They...
YOU ARE JUST STARTING TO LEAN A BIT WHEN YOU HAVE TO BLOODY-WELL DIE!
That’s what my father used to say when he was in his eighties. And now I am at least THINKING it. Yes, it is true. It sometimes takes a lifetime to really understand some issues...or someone. Perhaps it is because when one gets older, one might have more time to...
VALE BARRY HUMPHRIES
What a great entertainer! He has enabled us to enjoy such mirth! Such talent! He will be missed. Years ago, when my daughter Katy was a teenager, we were having a day at the Brisbane Exhibition. We had not long passed through the gates when I almost bumped into this...
THE SILVER THIMBLE
We were leaving the district. Leaving the farm that had been home to four generations of my father’s family. The Great Depression still raged and times were tough for a small dairy farmer of 1937. They would try their luck in the city. A share farmer was arranged, a...