Through My Eyes
Minna

I see people walk by me
and I go into my own world and think,
what if my disability hadn't come?
Would I still be friendly or would I be mean?

A bunch of questions pop into my mind.
I ask myself if cancer had not killed my dad
would he be here? Would I be the same,
or would I be weaker?

I think what if one day they find a cure for cancer
and no more people die and leave their loved ones?
They would still be happy and smiling...pain free.
They would be free...nothing killing them inside.

But then I think if I didn't have a disability
I wouldn't have the time to notice
that people sitting in wheelchairs
are wonderful and funny and more like
the rest of the world than they are different.

I might have passed them by assuming
that they can't do anything.
Pretty much like the rest of the world thinks
about people sitting in wheelchairs.

by Minna

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Joan Fleitas, Ed.D., R.N.
Associate Professor of Nursing, Lehman College, CUNY
Bronx, New York 10468  

 Last updated: October 6, 2005