A Stand-Up Wife

     After meeting Ron, a quadriplegic man and his wife, Sarah, Kevin went back to 4th grade a changed person. But I didn’t realize just how much he had changed. For back to school night, Kevin’s teacher asked the students to draw a picture of themselves as adults. Kevin knew right away what he wanted to draw. He decided he wanted a picture of himself as a married adult. So I --being his hands-- set out to draw Kevin and his wife. First I drew a wheelchair with Kevin sitting in it. Kevin liked this part of the picture. Then I started to draw a second wheelchair next to the first. Kevin immediately saw where I was going.

     “Mr. Allen . . . Mr. Allen” Kevin said, “No Mr. Allen.” I stopped drawing. My thinking was that he didn’t like the color of his wife’s wheelchair. But then as I listened, I wasn’t able to make out exactly what he was saying. But I could tell it was very important. It wasn’t the color of the wheelchair that was bothering him. But something wasn’t right. He kept saying something over and over. Whatever it was it had four syllables in it.

     Finally, after a few minutes, I figured out what he was saying. I smiled.

     “A stand up wife?” I asked.

     “Yes, Mr. Allen, a stand-up wife … like Ron.”