A Twist of Fate
I'll never forget the day we finished my mother's wheelchair ramp. My mother had a history of congestive heart failure, diabetic neuropathy, and was becoming weaker every day. For means of transportation, it had now become necessary for her to begin using a wheelchair.
When the ramp that we built was finally finished, being the adventurous fool that I was, I had to make certain that it would indeed "work". So, I took my mother's wheelchair and tried to wheel myself up the ramp.
You know, of course, I never ended up making it the whole way up. I got a forth of the way up and started flying backwards, proceeded to do a backwards wheelie, and ended up landing on my side; wheelchair and all. The next thing I knew, I was on my way to the emergency room with whiplash. That's the funny part of my mother's ramp.
The sad part is, she never even got to use it. She went into congestive heart failure that night and died a few days later. I attended her funeral with my neck brace on, the end result of all my shenanigans. That was back in '96.
Through the years, I always hated that ramp and often have been tempted to tear it down. But, someone always talked me out of it. "No, you don't really want to do that. Leave it there. It will increase your property value." So, much as I hated it, I have always left it there.
Now, as things turned out, it seems as if there may be a possibility that I just might be the one who will end up using that ramp! Seems as if I just might have helped build it for myself.
Sometimes, life seems to deal us a cruel twist of fate. I can either look at that ramp and whine, and cry, and say, "Why me, Lord? Or, I can smile a little and think, "Hey, at least I know you can’t go up it by yourself, in a wheel chair!
"A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones." Proverbs 17:22
© 2005 by Dot McGinnis