First a small hole, then a slightly bigger foot, then a snap. A friend says “Was that a twig?” I reply “No, I think it was my foot.”

It was my foot. I could not believe I was going to be hopping around on one leg again. I remembered three years ago the broken ankle, the pins, the screws and the computer that took offense when I was carrying it down the steps and decided to toss me off balance and break my leg. As I looked at my foot I remembered the long recovery. As I looked at my husband I could tell he remembered the long recovery.

It is amazing how easy it was to forget how hard it is to get around on one leg. I was hoping when I visited the foot doctor he would tell me it had all been a mistake. He sent me for a cast. No mistake. Nurse Anne was wonderful. If I got your name wrong I am sorry. I just glanced at your name but you made my casting call a better experience. My cast now matches my computer. I have a pink and purple and yellow and blue computer case. My cast and my computer could be twins.

Again, I am reminded that there are people who have disabilities that they live with all of their lives. Mine will last for a short time. I am reminded how hard it is to maneuver in a world where most of us are able bodied. Many stores and communities have made changes but many have not.

I will find out three years later if there have been improvements in the places I have frequented.

A reader recently told me I should consider giving up my driver’s license after I described my trip to Iowa. I then had two feet. I broke my left foot so if I can figure out how to get down my steps and get into my van I could drive. I imagine my reader will really be scared if I could try that. It wouldn’t make any difference. I maybe could make it into the grocery store with my crutches or walker but our store doesn’t have a motorized riding cart so I would not be able to handle groceries. Many larger stores are finally providing motorized carts so the handicapped can ride and shop.

I tried crutches. I have proved what everyone has been saying, I am unbalanced. I have watched many people balance on crutches and they seem to do it very well. When I try it one crutch goes one way and one crutch goes the other way and I end up in between trying not to step on the foot that I am not supposed to step on for six weeks. I finally have to admit that I am as old as I am, it is ok to be unbalanced and that I need the four legs a walker gives me.

The point is that when I broke my ankle three years ago it made me aware of the problems that people with disabilities have accessing public places. It made me aware of the problems people with disabilities have even in their own homes especially if their homes are old and do not have wider doorways or easy access into the home. I became aware, I was concerned and then time moved on and I quit talking about it. We quit talking about things and situations that don’t affect us.

My husband is doing double duty these days helping me access places that are inaccessible because I broke my foot. He too at first had a hard time understanding why the toilet stool lid had to stay up and the seat had to stay down. He, too, had trouble understanding why the chips needed to come down from on top of the refrigerator. Things now have to be a certain way so I can be more independent while my foot is healing.

We all have trouble understanding what we don’t live. I forgot what it is like to hop on one foot and have trouble getting down steps or not being able to shop in a store because I can’t walk. Many people live with those problems and struggle with the daily living every day.

If I have never lived in poverty I truly will not understand what it is to live in poverty. If I have never lived with cancer I cannot understand what those with cancer live with every day. If I have never lost someone I love I can never truly understand the grief.

For things to change we must listen to those that live in poverty, have disabilities, suffer illness and have suffered loss. Too many times changes have or have not been made in the name of those people by people who have not walked the road of the people they are making choices for. That statement might seem confusing but ask those that are affected by well meaning decisions if we have done enough, listened enough to their needs and made the right choices so those in poverty, those with disabilities and those that suffer grief can walk in their own shoes easier.

Wells resident Julie Seedorf’s column appears every Monday. Send e-mail to her at thecolumn@bevcomm.net or visit her blog at www.justalittlefluff.blogspot.com.