Ramp

This design was the product of youth, stupidity, an embarrassing crash and a damaged sweater. I’m a young(ish) woman with POTS who must use a wheelchair outside my home. When the wheelchair became a part of my life, I entered my second toddlerhood. My motto is “I’ll do it myself.”—Well, at least until I can’t.

One of my favorite things about my wheels is zipping down a long ramp. Once I get up some speed it is the closest I can come to the experience of running. At this point, I think you can see where the stupidity and the crash enter the story. I took off down a wonderful ramp and the bag holding my knitting flew off my lap. At that point my instincts were to save the knitting and forget about things like steering and braking, which are what my hands should have been doing at the time. I crashed into a wall and skidded about 20 feet with my right arm wedged against a guardrail. I wasn’t hurt and, the chair wasn’t damaged, but my just-off-the-needles sweater had an