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.
MEDICAL ASSISTANCE, NOW AND THEN
What a difference a few decades make! When I was a growing girl in the city, our doctor lived a few streets away. He practiced from home, and would make a lot of house calls; needs must, because in those days just prior to WWII, there would be only one car to a...
ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER
One thing always leads to another. One of the many interviews that I have done has lead to a learned fellow coming up to do a podcast about ageing, with me, the nonagenarian, doing the talking! He thought it was very good, and a week or so later I received a request...
TONSILLECTOMY
My little grand-daughter had a tonsillectomy last week. She has recovered well. It reminded me of my own experience when I was five. After contracting the dreaded diphtheria when I was three (read about it in my book ‘ Gardening in Your Nineties’), I suffered from...
TO END… OR NOT TO END…
I cannot quite understand it. Here is this woman, 86 years old, very capable, well educated and articulate, good company and in good health, but who is flying to Switzerland next week to have herself euthanised. No, I don ‘t quite get it. Now, I know she says she has...
A CHILD OF THE DEPRESSION
When I say that I am ‘a child of the Depression’, most folk know what I mean. It tells them that I do not waste anything if I can help it; I buy hardly anything if I can do without it; and I get great satisfaction out of tastefully using left-overs that are in my...
A COLLECTION OF MUSINGS
AMY COLLINS | sexinyourseventies.com AMY COLLINS Mum was always a good and interesting listener. And I would bring home any newsy anecdotes from my work at the hospital. I was looking after ex-servicemen from WWII, who were suffering from lung cancer...in the surgical...
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...