Tuesday, February 10, 2004

Grace

I was at the pool yesterday, beating the crap out of myself once again.  (The other day, a lady in the next lane said, "My, you sure work hard with all those weights and things."  My reply was, "Sometimes I win, sometimes they win."  Cracked up the lifeguard.)

One of the young women who works out at the pool is missing her right leg from about five inches below her knee joint.  She doesn't let it stop her, though...  She looks a lot better in her bathing suit than I do in mine!   She's completely unselfconscious about her leg.  Yesterday, on the way back to the locker room after her swim, she stopped to talk to a little guy in the kids' pool.  She was congratulating him on how far he could swim...said pretty soon he'd be swimming in the big pool.  

"Where's your leg?"  he asked, as kids will inevitably do.

"It's in there (the locker room) waiting for me.  It's a fake one, so I can't get it wet.  I have to take it off when I swim."

She took it right in her stride, as if it was the most natural thing in the world to be missing a leg.  What grace in the face of adversity!  It made me wonder what I would be doing if the same thing happened to me.  I probably wouldn't be seen in a swimsuit in public, much  less stopping to talk to little kids in the shallow pool.  I KNOW I wouldn't have been able to deal with the questions.  This girl deserves a medal or something.  What an ambassador for people with disabilites...and you know, I bet she doesn't think of herself as disabled at all.

Just goes to show that the challenges really do go to those who can handle them the best.  Or that a heaping helping of grace goes along with them.     

4 comments:

  1. She sounds like a great woman. She's the perfect example of how it is not important what has happened to you so much as how you deal with what has happened to you.

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  2. Children often shy from people who are obviously disabled. It's hard for them to understand, and it's frightening. Not only is that woman a wonderful example of strength and courage...but she did a wonderful thing for that child in demystifying her situation. He will grow up with a better understanding that those who are disabled or disfigured, are still human like the rest of us.

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  3. I'm glad she didn't think the child was being rude, or have her feelings hurt. You know how kids are. They just ask what they want to know.

    Does sound like a really cool person. :-)

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  4. What an ambassador for people with disabilites...and you know, I bet she doesn't think of herself as disabled at all.


    What a wonderful line Lisa! Your probably right and she doesn't consider it a problem.

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