THE POWER OF ‘NO’

Every week TLW (The Little Woman) and I go to my daughter’s day program to help her in her rehabilitation to walk. My daughter Ellen is 47 in March, and we thought we knew her. We thought that we had all the answers and understood her needs and wants from our years of raising her as a child.

Yesterday she taught us we know nothing!

Ellen is not able to speak she can’t adequately tell us all that is on her mind and needs basic gestures to do so, most times successfully but there are times that things get out of hand and break down.

Yesterday as we tried to get her out of the chair and prod her to move her legs. There was resistance each time we tried to motivate her to walk. My wife her PT person and two aides with myself all surrounded her trying to motivate her. Each attempt was short-lived and unsuccessful. Soon she would think about things and indicate she wanted to try. Once again we got excited and gathered around her and once again we were rebuffed.

My mind kept going back to three years ago when she was rehabbing in a place in Southampton, where I would go every day. Her present PT person Lisa worked there at the time so she knew Ellen having come from the agency where she is now. In my mind, I pictured the day she started her successful attempt three years ago. In this mental picture, I stood down the hallway and motivated her to walk. She would look down the long hallway and try. It occurred to me that we needed to replicate those conditions once again! Down the hall TLW and I went.

She stood straight with the physical help of Lisa and the two aides and walked under assistance! It was a great day for Mommy and Daddy.