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Book Excerpt - "CHASING NORMALITY"
The following excerpt describes an incident which occurred
while Dick was a student at the State University of South
Dakota. Like most universities at the time, it was not readily
wheelchair accessible.
“One
particular class was located in a building with a short flight
of steps for entry. However, we couldn’t easily exit
the same way because of the large number of students entering
the building at that time and because those steps were slippery
when wet. The best solution was to go down a longer inside
set of stairs to another exit using two helpers. One grabbed
the handles on the back of the wheelchair; the other grabbed
the front foot pedals. Tipping the chair on its rear wheels,
we rolled down the stairs one step at a time. Since I was
facing forward, I had a clear view of the steepness of the
descent and the area below. I could also see a large African
elephant head mounted on the wall across from the stairs on
the floor below.
The
task of handling the front end of the wheelchair during the
descent belonged to Ren Whitaker. Unlike the other helpers,
Ren wasn’t recruited for the job, and he didn’t
live at the house. I met him in a German class where he volunteered
to push me to another class when my other helpers had class
conflicts. That chance meeting led to friendship and, on one
occasion, may have saved my life.
We
were still very near the top of the stairs that day when the
guy in the back slipped and released the wheelchair. Ren saw
the slip and knew he couldn’t hold me in place. So,
maintaining the balance on the rear wheels, he just started
running backwards as fast as he could to keep me from tipping
forward. I’ve heard it said that military veterans often
refer to combat as ‘having seen the elephant.’
Without firing a shot, I saw the elephant that day; he was
staring at me from his post on the wall as I was bouncing
down the stairs. I wondered how long Ren could maintain his
balance, how long the wheelchair could take that pounding,
and what would happen to me if the answers to those questions
were less than positive.
The
wondering stopped swiftly when my other helper recovered and
grabbed the wheelchair with one arm and the railing with the
other. Somehow, Ren saw that coming too, and he was able to
adjust to the sudden stop after being in freefall for three
or four steps. As I remember, not a word was spoken during
the entire event, just plenty of heavy breathing afterwards.
Two days later, we were back on those stairs; class was still
on.”
Richard
L. Wieler’s memoir, “Chasing Normality,”
was written with Maureen
O’Halloran Clark.
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Richard
(Dick) Wieler
Learning to Use a Mouthstick
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