Travels With My Placard: The Kindness of Handicapped Strangers

Upon leaving Casey's after my "knee is the new baby" chat with a random gal, I headed to 10Box to get bananas, bread, slaw mix, Beanee Weenies, mozzarella sticks, toilet paper, and paper towels. Oh, and of course tickets from their lottery machine.

ALL THE HANDICAP PARKING SPACES WERE TAKEN!!!

Not only that, but all the front-row parking spaces were taken. As well as the eight spaces on the closest ends of the perpendicular parking rows. I looped around and parked in the middle of a row, watching for someone to leave. Great! A lady came out and got in a little gray SUV in one of the end spaces. T-Hoe was still running. As soon as she drove past me, I pulled into the lane to drive down and get that space.

What in the Not-Heaven? A maroon SUV came down the main aisle, and pulled right into that space! Dang it! I wasn't close enough yet to try and claim it. Didn't have the signal on. First come, first parked! It was fair enough. Just bad luck for me.

But wait! As I was looping around again, a truck parked nose-to-nose with that usurper started backing out. I nabbed that space forthwith! All I had to do was hobble across the main driving area, and between the cars already parked in the handicap spaces. And look at that! A lady was returning her cart, but rather than push it inside to the inconvenient cart corral halfway down the store, she parked it in front of the doors! I could grab that one, rather than make the extended journey to get my own inside.

I was shuffling across the white-diagonal-striped area between cars (big enough for a whole other handicap space, which it USED to be before the remodel) when a lady on her way into the store took my rightful cart! Would this bad luck ever end???

I saw a man come out pushing a cart. I knew he was "family." A member of the handicap family! Because he only had one little bag in his cart, yet was still pushing it out of the store rather than carrying it. He must have recognized ME as "family" as well.

"Would you like this cart?" He said as he lifted out the small bag.

"Yes! Thank you so much! There was one parked here when I started over, but a lady beat me too it because I was so slow!"

He laughed heartily, told me to have a good day, and limped to his car door, parked in the closest handicap spot right beside me.

When I came out, the four handicap spaces closest to the door were all empty.