Member-only story
Like Letters Written in the Sand Part Twenty Two (Revised)
Anna-leis would never take for granted the opportunity to stand face to face with Clarence. If everything went well with the adoption, and if she believed it would go smoothly, just standing was not an easy task when you were trying to figure out how to navigate life as a double amputee, and how to incorporate that into everyday life and life as a parent.
“You don’t realize how much you take for granted until everything changes.” Anna-leis glanced at Clarence. “It kind of puts things into perspective, it has definitely opened my eyes to the way some people treat people with disabilities.”
“It isn’t fair.” Clarence concurred. “No one deserves to be treated as a second class citizen.”
“No, they don’t.” Anna-leis agreed. After a while, working three times as hard to prove yourself becomes tiresome.”
To her credit, Anna-leis did not react to the stares, pity whispers, and rude comments, but Clarence could see the pain in her eyes as she did not react. While she was good at hiding her emotions from others, Clarence knew her too well to do so. He was able to read pain and hurt in Anna-leis’s eyes, and it occurred more often than he would like. What had happened to Anna-leis was not exactly a secret; it had been too publicized for that. A drunk driver slamming into the…
