MGA News March 1998

Life has been 'getting in the way' of late, or as Mrs Gravis would say "You have been taking too much on again".

Well I am afraid that that is how I am. Since MG started to play Old Harry with my system I have learned to pace myself, but there are just some things which have to be undertook as Great Aunt Gravis would have said. She had these curious turns of phrase and I was reminded of her when I overheard an elderly couple talking about me as they were leaving Church one evening. I know that listeners never hear good of themselves, but I honestly couldn't help it; they spoke so loudly, as if I was not there. The way that people do when you are in a wheelchair. I had not long been diagnosed as a Myasthenic and I think that during my stay in hospital, prayers had been said on my behalf; in these the Vicar had obviously used the term Myasthenia Gravis. "What's wrong with young Mr Gravis?", said the old gentleman, I liked the young bit. "Oh" says his spouse, "didn't you hear, he has missing grabits". "What's they?" he asked. "I don't exactly know" says she, "but it must be serious, he were in hospital for three months while they fixed him up with artificial ones". Somehow put like that things didn't seem so bad.

It is not until you are using a wheelchair. I hate the term 'confined to a wheelchair', it sounds like a punishment put that way, that you realise that it's not the chair that changes your life so much as other peoples' attitudes. They seem to assume that you are deaf, dumb or of limited intellect. The title of the BBC programme 'Does he take sugar' sums things up exactly. Mostly people are caring, they do want to help, but if only they would wait until asked. I shudder to think of the number of bruised ankles which have resulted from well intentioned friends getting too close at the wrong moment.

My chair is a rather ancient electrically propelled job. It works, and even pulls my great bulk up quite steep slopes, but I ain't going to win the Monaco Grand Prix in it. Mind you, I can help Mrs Gravis break into a warm glow when we are out in the village. Over the years it has been very reliable. The batteries don't last for ever, but have always been quite decent and faded out gracefully, giving reasonable notice of their final demise. The only major failure occurred in the Palm House at Kew Gardens. One of the great things about the chair is that, once out of a vehicle and onto a good surface, I can be relatively independent. Mrs Gravis and I can visit gardens and parks and enjoy life a bit. Anyway, there we are towards the end of a day at Kew, admiring whatever it is that you admire in the Palm House, probably palms. We decide that we have seen all there is to be seen and it is time to go back to the bus park. I start to move off, there is a loud graunching (lovely word that) noise, followed by a clatter as most of the drive components from the right wheel fall through the gratings onto the heating pipes beneath. Fortunately the chair can be pushed and Mrs Gravis comes to the rescue, but I return to the bus feeling quite silly.

MGA NEWS March 1998

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