I love your brain

Yesterday tragedy struck on the playground. Cole accidentally collided with a friend whilst practicing driving the power wheelchair. He’s been really careful, mostly just harming himself, scrapes and bruises from running into benches and things. By all accounts he was moving and she ran up, from out of nowhere, to hug him without realizing he was moving and Wham! Bloody heel…I’m sure tears…

She’s thankfully okay and hopefully more keenly aware to be cautious around moving wheelchairs with newish drivers.

He’s okay too. He was really shaken up, knowing he had hurt his friend, accident or not. Even when the story was recounted to me when I arrived home after work, he was near tears over it. We texted his friend and her mom just to make sure everything was okay to reassure him.

His take away from this is that part of the responsibility of driving a power chair includes not only keeping your eye on where you’re going but being aware of your surroundings. It’s not unlike our own experience driving cars. He now has an understanding that while he can’t control what other people around him are doing, he does need be on the alert. His chair is a heavy, powerful piece of moving machinery that can do harm to him or to others if he’s not super aware of his surroundings, even when he’s driving cautiously.