So as my aide was strapping my wheelchair down in the car after a one hour dog walk, this lady pops her head into my car! She then says excitedly, "Oh, you're Sean right! My old student!" Then to my aide, "Isn't he Sean?! I used to teach him in special ed! I am a special ed teacher! Are you his mother?" My aide replied, "I doubt it, She's 26 and her name is Eva." Then (here's the kicker) the woman's response was, "Are you sure it not Sean, he looks just like him?" Yes. I'm sure I'm not Sean. Thanks anyway. And then she said goodbye and gave be the big special wave in my face.
Obviously all people with disabilities look the same. Wow.
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Can I just say that I love love love the "Special Wave" tag?
ReplyDeleteWow, that's awful. You'd expect better from a teacher of special ed.
ReplyDeleteThat teacher sounds pretty special...
ReplyDeleteHow rude
ReplyDeleteThat's so creepy. Maybe she was trying to kidnap you.
ReplyDeleteThat's a cute story, Sean.
ReplyDeleteKidding. I know you're really Frankie, who I used to teach in 4th grade a couple of years ago.
So, next time your aide is going to stop - look thoughtful for a second - then say, "Oh, wait.. dammit yes, THAT IS SEAN, and I'm his mother! I totally forgot! I've been thinking this is my friend Eva, the 26-year-old lesbian, but it's really my son Sean! THANK YOU for bringing back to reality!"
Wow.............
ReplyDeleteThat's all I can say... Wow.
Too bad you didn't have your camera on, I'd have loved to see the looks on your faces after, "Are you sure??"
Your name's Sean? I could have sworn you said it was Eva. Oh well. You and your aide probably don't even know who you are. At least you have that lady to remind you.
ReplyDeleteI remember you saying once that you had cool feminist stickers on your chair. Even if you were still in the chair, that lady probably would still have insisted you were Sean. Do most people figure those are someone else's stickers, especially since someone with a disability is incapable of having and expressing an opinion?
OMg don't people get it. That is rude. I mean hello once someone says your name I would think they would get it
ReplyDeleteYou really need to go easy on the lady. I once mistook my disabled daughter in her wheelchair for Michael Jackson. As a matter of fact, just last week I would have sworn that Lady Gaga was in a chair in my living room, but alas, it was Pearlsky. Wheelchairs just make you look like other people ...
ReplyDeleteGeesh ... and a special ed teacher to boot. Asshole.
You'd think a special ed teacher would have heightened powers of observation.
ReplyDelete*head-palm* What a very silly and rude woman.
ReplyDeleteSO RUDE.
ReplyDeleteAND YOU ARE VERY COOL .
Boggles the mind. However do you maintain a sense of humor in the face of such....such.....whatever....
ReplyDeleteOMG, Brutal. My boyfriend keeps being called "Keith" everywhere we go in public. Apparently there is another gentleman more or less his age in this neighbourhood who has the same colour hair and uses an electric wheelchair. Clearly, then, they must be the same person. He also is constantly being asked by the other residents in my condo building "When did you move from the first floor?" Ok, I've SEEN the guy who lives on the first floor and there is no resemblance other than a wheelchair and gender. They are in different generations, the other is a manual chair, the other guy smokes, hair color is different...I could go on and on. Finally one old woman in the elevator, when Sylvain explained he had never lived on the first floor, said, "Oooooh, there's two of you!" Priceless.
ReplyDelete