Dorn

I am writing this story of my life to encourage other individuals with physical disabilities to move forward no matter what their circumstances are.The challenges and effects on my life as a T4 level paralytic have been extraordinary. (T4 nerve roots affect sensation at the upper chest and back. This injury resulted in paralysis from the chest down, from which I was unable to sit upright or stand on my own.) The challenges on a personal level can create despair and anxiety from time to...
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I am writing this story of my life to encourage other individuals with physical disabilities to move forward no matter what their circumstances are.The challenges and effects on my life as a T4 level paralytic have been extraordinary. (T4 nerve roots affect sensation at the upper chest and back. This injury resulted in paralysis from the chest down, from which I was unable to sit upright or stand on my own.) The challenges on a personal level can create despair and anxiety from time to time. However, those challenges can also be an incentive to develop significant accomplishments in one's life. I decided to explore changes in my present situation with schooling, work, family and social activities much after the initial accident. During seventy-five years, a remarkable life unfolded to where I became energetic and successful while living with a disability that was continuously causing problems on an ongoing basis. This story takes place through the decades from when I was born in Saint John, NB, to a creative and healthy life as a senior in Ottawa, ON. How Sandra, Jennifer and I lived and what we did together creates a beautiful and exciting story. Chapters are set around each decade beginning in 1945 and how my family evolved, to the people we met, and moves made during the '50s especially our contact with our grandparents. I look at my feelings, reactions and accomplishments to a tragic accident in the 60s and coping with paraplegia. From the mid-60s onward, life was full of despair, excitement, devastation, achievement, anger, pride, romance, love, and absolute bliss. The story continues into the 70s, creating my own family, job versatility and coping with marriage, family and friends. Moving through each decade to the present time will show how we can achieve things no matter our disability. Hopefully, this is a story of morale-boosting and vitality, creating the strength and enthusiasm required for sustained physical and mental activity and its effect on others.