Is there a moral? Any hindsight? Ummmm...well...How were we to know the guy couldn't work the wheelchair lift. LOL I guess that next time, we'll work it out a little more, ahead of time. And when it comes to airport temporary loading and unloading parking areas...I'm going to just stop the car, and go straight to the cop and tell him I need special assistance. PERIOD!
And I'll remember the lid for the commode. :)
And something else I didn't mention, is that I kept LISTS. I had lists of what to do when we got to L.A...what to do before leaving the hotel...etc. etc. The most important list was the one for "What to take with you when you leave the hotel room for the last time." If it hadn't been for my list, Mom's nightlight would still be in the wall and I probably would have forgotten the Handicap Parking sign in the rental car. But then again, I had Mom with me, and like I said in the beginning, SHE is very sharp. She would have remembered it all!
Well, that's the story. We learned a lot. We enjoyed our trip. And we're starting to plan our next one. We're thinking about making it a cruise, this time....so we can analyze what else Mom needs to do, in order to get back to hostessing. I can't imagine her walking on a rocking ship...or stepping over ledges in the bathroom...or maneuvering in some of the tight places...or going up the ramps....OY!!!! I know there are a lot of people who do this. But I know we have a LOT to learn.
What surprised me, was how it was the unexpected things that caused so much problem...like loading and unloading from cars...or getting pickup vans or cars that were accessible. They were things we never anticipated, even with all our planning.
One thing is for sure. As I said to Mom, we are lucky her stroke happened in 1999 and not 20 years earlier. We found so many places where they had only recently adapted to handicap accessibility. 10 or 20 years ago....heck, 3 years ago, we wouldn't have had the ramps on the buses, the great handicap hotel rooms, or the understanding of the airlines. We've come a long way. But, as we found, it's still important that those of us who are in this situation continue to inform people and educate them. Wherever we found good setups, we made a point of commending people for their great adjustments and provisions for the handicap. And where we saw problems, we made sure we kindly told them so and/or wrote followup letters to help them improve. And strangely enough, there were many cases where they HAD the equipment, but they'd never used it, so we often showed them how to work their own equipment. What an adventure!
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