Today was my due date for having Sean in 2001. He had a different idea though, I had him eight weeks prior to today. I remember my Mom getting worried about the look in my eyes whenever I talked about how much I would eat for Thanksgiving and for Christmas because I was pregnant. He came BEFORE both of those days so that didn’t happen.
I have recently been thinking about Sean as a baby; More specifically, his second Halloween, when he was about to be two and wanted to be and was a horse for Halloween. My friend Ami made his costume. Because he was so small, we took his wagon so he wouldn’t tire out on our walk. It was the cutest thing! We would come down the walkway from the porch of a house and my Mom was waiting at the end of walkway with the wagon.
Sean would get into the wagon and meticulously buckle his seatbelt before we would move the wagon to the next house which was when Sean would unbuckle and walk up to the house. He repeated these actions the whole time we trick-or-treated! It was so funny because when he got to each of the doors, if there was a dog, he would ask if he could pet them and other times, he would ask if he could come into their house.
My Mom and I asked Sean if he remembered it as we laughed about it and he just said, “Safety first!” My Mom likens me to three-year-old Sean and his seatbelt when I immediately need my seatbelt on!
I need to preface that last sentence with the fact that my motorized chair has a seatbelt. Actually, it is called a, “Pelvis stabilizer” and NOT a “seatbelt!” My first wheelchair tech told me that every wheelchair is equipped with a seatbelt by law . I remember that he took one off of one of my first wheelchairs because it annoyed me! As my disease has progressed and I really can’t control my body very much, I only feel safe once my seatbelt is fastened. Excuse me, rather, my, “pelvis stabilizer.”
Every morning, when I initially transfer into my motorized chair from my bed, My Mom will tilt the backrest all the way back so then, once gravity plays a role, I can easily slide back into the seat. Once I am securely into the chair properly, I start to move the control joystick to put me back into the sitting position. Before I am in a full sitting position, I tell my Mom to get my belt! She calls me Sean referencing his second Halloween and the wagon!
She doesn’t get and I didn’t get how important this, “Pelvis Stabilizer” really is! How important it has become for me now! Whenever she calls me this, I smile and say just like Theodore, “ you should have been wearing your seatbelts!”