Watch your toes, my dad says to me as his wheelchair wheels towards me.
Watch your toes, my dad says as he is trying to get by and I’m in his way.
Watch your toes.
I’ve heard it a millions times. I know to watch my toes, I’ve had them run over before. I was two when my dad became paralyzed, and I grew up learning that my toes always had a potential for being run over. I don’t remember him when he was walking and I find it hard to write about him being in a wheelchair. Not because it’s sad or too painful but because to me it’s normal.
When my dad comes close to running me over I lightly punch him in the arm and say,
“Hey you almost ran me over, don’t make me push you out of your chair!
He laughs and says “Get out of the way!”
We laugh and joke. We both know I would never push him out of his chair unless we were playing tackle football. And I know he doesn’t run me over on purpose but sometimes I am really just in his way.
The wheelchair is just a chair. It isn’t a hindrance. We don’t act like it doesn’t exist, we embrace it. We joke about it when we need to.
Watch your toes my dad would say when I was a little girl. He said the words out of love to protect me. I knew it was more than just watching my toes. I knew what he really meant was that he would do anything for me.
As a little girl he would tell me to watch my toes right before I climbed onto his lap. Sometimes I stood on his lap to reach something up high. When I climbed back down he would tell me to watch my toes.
Watching out for toes can be said in many situations. I have stubbed my toes on doorways, and coffee tables and it hurts far worse than wheelchair tire road rash. Wheelchairs are not the only things that can harm toes.If you live your life worrying about your toes and when they will get run over what kind of a life are you living?
I’ve had my toes stepped on by walking feet and it hurts worse. That does not stop me from hanging around people who at any moment can step on my toes. Getting my toes run over by a wheelchair does not stop me from being around people in wheelchairs, for fear of my toes being run over.
Keep Rolling On even if your toes get run over!
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