We are your parents, your children, your brothers
and sisters;
We are the person down the street; we are that lady
or fellow who may walk a little 'funny' at the grocery store.
every weekend;
We are the people you "Tsk Tsk" over, because we
'look' too good to use a handicapped parking place;
We are the folk who might not be able to get out
to the Church or Temple.
We are your peers;
We are human beings.
We are the face of Multiple
Sclerosis. A face that is nearly every ethnicity;
that comes from nearly every country, that does not
discriminate by social standing or class or financial or educational background or language or religion.
We are both able to walk unassisted and use canes and walkers
and wheelchair users;
We jog and swim and partake in sports; We are housebound,
We use scooters; We need respirators.
We are everything in between. We are visually impaired
and we are not.
We are at every level of physical ability.
Of course, we "look so good" while we're doing it. We
hear that phrase every day of our lives. Sometimes that phrase is meant as a compliment and sometimes it is meant to hurt
or meant to shame us into doing something of which we may not be currently capable.
We may be able to do that something
tomorrow, though, or next week; Multiple Sclerosis is like that. We are like that.
Some of us are hearing
impaired; yet all of us occasionally have people talk louder to us. "HOW ARE YOU D-O-I-N-G????" they'll scream, speaking to
us as though we were either hearing or intellectually impaired. "YOU LOOK SO G-O-O-D!!!!"
Of course we do. Thank you
very much. We are, in fact, the very best looking people in the handicapped community. We have secret beauty pageants every
year, to decide which of our number is the absolute best-looking. Billy Crystal emcees, as his character Fernando; "..and
you look MAHVELOUS my dear;
absolutely M-A-H-V-E-L-O-U-S..."
We are brave. We are fragile. We want to live, and
we want to end it all. We look for support and we want to stand alone. We are Everyperson. We are the People
with Multiple
Sclerosis. We are People, Just Like You....
