All is Full of Love

Every day, as these interviews progress I am more and more in awe with the individuals I encounter. I find myself complaining of the heat, of how I'd really really like to be able to fly to Toronto after I fly to Vancouver but I just don't have the money. boo hoo.

Then I hear people say things like this:

Maria (not her real name) is in a wheelchair. She is going blind and deaf. She has MS. She is having difficulting securing income from the Ontario Disability Support Program (welfare for people with disabilies who cannot work) because for a brief period she worked at Ontario Hyrdo, because, as she puts it, "I don't like being paid for breathing". The ODSP office said she obvioulsy could work, she'd done it in the past. She reminded them that she had done this work before she had gone blind and nearly deaf. She really needed this income from ODSP because she didn't have enough money to purchase batteries for her hearing aid - because she is going blind she cannot read lips like she usually does. She sometimes has to choose between hearing or eating. HEARING OR EATING! You make the choice.

Why did she agree to participate in the TBEJC study? Because:

"I'm used to losing the fight, and this is one fight I'm going to win" - I'll remember that next time I'm distraught that my hair is flipping out at the sides.