Pioneering spirit
Reprinted with permission of
The Herald Journal, January 24, 2008
By Karen Lambert
Charlene Johnson considers herself a pioneer of sorts, but sometimes she wonders if she's a foolish one.
Although multiple sclerosis has put her in a wheelchair, she's still determined to stay involved in the community. Last week, she was the only one in a wheelchair to meet with the Daughters of Utah Pioneers at the Bluebird Cafe. Afterwards, she missed her bus and decided to wheel herself home.
"I am so independent. I just didn't want anyone to stop and help me," she said. "I wanted to get myself home. I've done it before, but that was summer."
Johnson got stuck, but she successfully rocked her wheelchair out of the snow. It was so cold she said she thought of a pioneer she'd just learned about who'd crossed the plains and lost her toes due to frost bite.
Johnson continued home, only to be stopped by unplowed walks. At that point the cold was intense enough that she allowed herself to be helped by strangers who escorted her home and whom she says she expects to meet in heaven.
She returned home embarrassed and worried she should just stay inside in the winter.
"I'm sure everyone that saw me struggle wondered why I had not stayed home," she wrote when she recorded the experience afterwards. "I'm pretty smart and I love to get out."
Johnson isn't the only Cache Valley resident to struggle getting around in the winter. Tamra Neilson, outreach coordinator with Options for Independence, said she knows several people with disabilities who do decide to just stay home. To help, Options for Independence provides van transportation to its activities, educational events and trips to the grocery store. In addition, Cache County's transit system provides a call-a-ride service for those with disabilities.
However, Neilson said some people get stuck in the snow of their own driveway trying to get to the bus.
Gordon Richins, who takes the bus from Preston to his job at USU in Logan five days a week, said he gets stuck all the time.
"Winter's difficult for everybody and if you use an electric wheelchair or some kind of (assistance) device, it inhibits your access and ability to get around," he said.
Richins, a consumer liaison for USU's Center for Persons with Disabilities research unit, said if people would just do small things they could be a major help for those with disabilities. That includes shoveling their walks and avoiding piling up snow in the disabled parking spaces at the stores - something he said happens all the time at the mall.
Susan Psalmonds, who has been confined to a wheelchair for the last year due to fibromyalgia neuropathy in her feet, also said winter poses a big challenge.
"In the summer time I really think nothing about going like from Wal-Mart over to Ross or ShopKo," she said. "I just get in my chair and I go. Winter time that gets impossible."
Uncleared snow can also impede the spiritual life of those with disabilities, said Psalmonds, who is a life coach and a chaplain. Psalmonds runs Abundant Hope Ministries, a nondenominational Christian service targeted at those with disabilities and mental illness.
"Normally the amount of access for people with disabilities in a faith-based community is really bad. In winter it gets worse," Psalmonds said. "Even if the church is accessible, there's no guarantee there's going to be transportation to get them to the church. I'm not necessarily LDS, but if I were there's no way my chair would make it to the chapel in the winter time, even though it's only a block and a half from my house."
