He Made You A Cripple
Loyalsock High School
Guidance Office
Williamsport, PA
1983
They come in to my office to enroll in school which started
a few weeks ago. Marcia is in a wheelchair that her mother is pushing. They
show up unannounced, no school records from a previous school and no
explanation as to where Marcia has been for the last ten school days.
Some families come in to my office and they are just ready
to do battle with each other and anyone else in their path. This team today is one of those families. I
hear them as they approach my office. They are argumentative and angry with
each other.
I don’t even have to ask any questions but the big argument
comes out right away. Marcia tells me,
“My mother wants me to sue my boyfriend. She said he is to blame for my
accident so he should pay all of the medial bills. I don’t want to sue him. I’m not pissed off
with him. It wasn’t his fault but my mother says I have to sue him. We don’t
have no money.
The mother interrupts, “he made you a cripple. Someone has
to pay all those damn bills. I’m not made of money.”
Marcia turns angrily to her mother, “I don’t want to sue
him. It was an accident. He didn’t mean to hurt me.” She is crying now.
“He made you a cripple. You’re stuck in that chair for life.
You had a future. Now you have nothing.
He made you a cripple so he was to pay.”
With that Marcia blurts out, “ No. No. You made me a cripple.”
And then she wept.
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