I forced myself to remember when my first intention to be a handicapped and resume with such a story. Having a house in a garden, lot of friends around me, about 5 years old we moved to an apartment, my mom was not letting me go out to play with the children down in the street. Always watching from the window guys, playing having fun. One day one of them came with crutches one leg amputated after a car accident. Everybody was around him. I was feeling that he was sad but everybody was trying to make him happy by copying him as jumping over one leg just pretending having one leg. But he was crutching. He had to…
After a while my auntie bought me some tools of carpenter. I was doing wooden boxes but confidentially started to produce crutches while practicing over, while alone at home. Tried to make a wheelchair but couldn’t. No enough equipment…
This amputee guy that I became friend after couple of years started to wear a fake leg but still was the focus of everybody, everyone trying to act him such as a normal body, never talking about his fake leg…
My practices with home made crutches became a habit, every time alone at home, even taking risk sometimes; I was taking them from the hidden place, walking at home, watching me on the mirror.
In a small village there was few disabled, I can not see many, but when we were traveling a big city side and that was the only I could see someone on crutches or in a wheelchair.
I moved to a boarding school in city after primary, than some watching experiences of casted leg boys crutching but every time fascinated, trying not to show how do I feel. My first experience was in during a summerhouse visit of family friends. An amputated man having a wheelchair left all the time in the garden, he was using his crutches only. Very early in the morning, I went there, took the wheelchair wheeled around in the dark… Something dreamed came true…
Came back to school. Another guy, his leg broken, casted, while sleeping leaving the crutches lying on the floor. I was waiting to everyone fall in sleep, silently taking the crutches and crutching all over the school building. Such a risk … No one saw me…Even I did this many times and with some other casted friends crutches. Two times I practiced amongst the friends, but not only me, most of my friends playing with the crutches just like a toy. But I was indifferent that everyone feeling like me (no way at the same level) but dreaming even just a little similarity.
Than university; I got my studio sharing with a friend but better than sharing the dormitory with hundreds of people, I got my own secret place that I can hide my own crutches. Than made a collection of different type & colors of them. Pretending over nights with fake casts. Than started to work part-time (my room-made left for military service) I bought a hospital wheelchair, they are cheap but quite difficult to hide, but I was disassembling all parts, and hiding all the possible places in the studio to hide.
As much as I earned more money I increased the quality of the wheelchairs; first was foldable, than a basketball chair but as you can imagine I spent a fortune. Anytime I buy a new, I left the old one in a hospital garden since no place to hide big size wheelchair if you own more than one.
That’s my story…… I wanted to share my 20 years story….
Leave a Reply