My brother's name is Larry. When he was born in 1947, it was a diffiuclt birth with a long labor. He was not able to breath. The doctor wasn't prepared to do his job. He had to send the nurses downstairs to get pans of hot & cold water to dip him in before Larry would breath. This was in a hospital! As a result... Larry had cebrebal palsy... but it was not detected until he was 2 years old.
He learned to walk...very slowly... by pushing a small homemade cart & later with a walker. Larry could drive a tractor & helped our father do certain farm work, like raking hay & pulling the wagon to pick up hay on flat fields. When Larry was 19, Daddy died, after a very short illness. He had promised to buy Larry a riding lawn mower and Mother kept that promise. Larry eventually used that riding mower so much he wore it out! He traded it in for a small garden tractor... which he souped up with everything possible... from a cab to a little red wagon pulled behind it. It was possible for him to have the freedom to drive to football & basketball games at school... & our small village one mile away.
But as Larry grew older, he gained weight & it became harder and harder for him to walk. After he took a few falls, Mother thought it was a good idea to buy him a wheelchair to use inside the house. We didn't know at the time, but what a mistake! After he began to use the wheelchair... Larry was soon not able to walk at all. Since that time, an electric wheelchair has been his mode of getting around. A lot of his freedom was lost. Larry had been very busy before... mowing lawns, repairing small things, visiting neighbors, ect. Now he had very little to do except watch tv. Eventually, a used van had to be purchased & wheelchair lift added... to be able to take Larry places.
After the death of Mother this summer... Larry began to go to an area work center for handicapped people. They gave him a job with a small salary... but more important... they gave him a lot of contact with other people. He now has a life of his own again and seems to really be enjoying it!
....b colegrove