We are your parents, your children, your brothers
and sisters;
we are the person down the street; we are that lady or fellow who
may walk a little "funny" at the grocery store. We are the people
that you "tsk tsk" over because we might look too good to use
a handicapped parking space. We are the folks who might not
be able to get out to the Church or Temple every weekend;
we are your peers; we are human beings.
We are the face of Multiple Sclerosis. A face
that is nearly
every ethnicity; that comes from nearly every country, that
does not discriminate by social standing or class or financial
or educational background or language or religion.
We are both able to walk unassisted and use canes and walkers
and wheelchairs. we jog and swim and partake in sports;
we are housebound; we use scooters; we need respirators.
We are everything in between. We are visually impaired and
we are not. We are at every level of physical ability.
Of course we "look so good" while we're doing it.
We hear that phrase every day of our lives. Sometimes
that phrase is meant as a compliment and sometimes it is
meant to shame us into doing something of which we may
not be currently capable. We may be able to do that something
tomorrow though, or next week; Multiple sclerosis is like that.
We are like that. Some of us are hearing impaired;
yet all of us occasionally have people talk louder to us.
"HOW ARE YOU D-O-I-N-G????" they'll scream,
speaking to us as though we were either hearing or intellectually
impaired. "YOU LOOK SO G-O-O-D!!!!"
Of course we do. Thank you very much. We
are, in fact,
the very best looking people in the handicapped community.
We have secret beauty pageants every year to decide which
of our number is the absolute best-looking. Billy Crystal
emcees as his character Fernando; "...and you look
MAHVELOUS my dear; absolutely M-A-H-V-E-L-O-U-S..."
We are brave. We are fragile.
We want to live and we want to end it all.
We look for support and we want to stand alone.
We are every person. We are the people
with multiple sclerosis. We are people just like you...
by
Virginia Sanchez
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A Thorn in my Flesh