My parents always wanted a girl like me. I was the perfect fulfillment of their dreams when I was born. I was their angle, lovely, curly blond, always in good mood and laughing.
But I didn't develop as expected. At the age of two I was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy. It affects all of my limbs. I can't control the movements of my arms. I can't touch anything. Furthermore, I can't use my hands. Trying to touch something results in a cascade of violent twitching of my arms. At the end my hands are where I want them to be but there's nothing on the table anymore. My arms are more affected than my legs and my left side is better than my right one.
I have no control on my right arm and my right leg. Most of the time they flail around uselessly. My right hand likes to fold inwards; the fingers overstretched, freakish twisted and always in motion. This hand is either fixed somewhere or in a thick sock to protect me form hurting myself. Strange, but the freakish fingers don't fit in a glove.
The only movement I can do with my right leg is to pull it up to my shoulders. No, I can't really move it, I can trigger it to pull up, it's all or nothing. And I can't get it down again. It straightens when it wants.
My left leg is my best. I can keep it still with some concentration and I can move my foot. And I have some control on my left hand. I can open and close it a bit and I can hold something, but I can't grab anything. My fingers hardly work.
Anyway, I can't care for myself, I can't eat or drink by myself, can't walk, can't touch and hold on things. In fact, I can't do anything by myself. I always need assistance.
I grew up as normal as possible. My parents made sure that there was always someone to assist me.
I learned to walk, either using a walker or being held by my assistant. I used braces to fix and stabilize my legs. The braces were fantastic. They locked whenever there's weight on them. Then the only possible motion was to straighten my legs. Without load, I could, no, my legs could move as they want, but as soon as I put weight on them my braces locked, and I could stand independently. Later, at school, I enjoyed everybody's attention, I enjoyed being in focus when people see me in my walker, fighting against my uncooperative legs, hardly working to move on step by step and to go where I want to go to, not where my legs want to go. And I enjoyed people staring at me when I couldn't hold the left handle any longer, my arm wriggling around some time until I get my hand back to the handle and hold it tight again. Or even better, if the fixation of my right hand to the walker's handle came up and my right arm moves around wildly unless somebody helped me and fixed my right hand again.
My left hand is my good hand. I can't touch anything by myself as I can't control my arm, but I can move my fingers, touch and hold something if someone keeps my hand in place. At school, I even learned to write. My assistant holds my left hand, give me a pencil and close my fingers around it in the right way. Then holds the paper, guides my hand and I can write.
But life changed when I got ill. It was a perfect summer, a long holiday with my friends and a two weeks summer camp for special needs people. I had a lot of fun. Two weeks later I got a severe fever. At the end I was put into an artificial sleep for a whole month. It has gone worse when they got me back. I couldn't walk anymore, not even with my braces. I still can stand with my braces locked for some time, but then my right foot likes to stretch straight and kicks me out of balance. Now I'm in a power wheelchair full time. Sometimes my right leg likes to straighten and starts jerking involuntary in front of me. It's always good when my right arm and right leg are stuck in the slings fixed to the wheelchair. They can twitch as they want, I can't hurt myself, and they don't cramp.
And something happened to my neck muscles. I can't hold my head anymore. The muscles are working, but I have absolutely no balance. Without support my head stumbles around if I try to keep it upright.
And I can't move my feet anymore. My right foot likes to straighten, the ankle fixed motionless in an ultra high-heel position, only my toes having their own life. My left foot has turned inside like a clubfoot. It's not fixed; I can straighten it by myself with some work. I can hardly move my toes, they like to contract, only the big one stretches upwards. But my left leg is still my best and the only limb I can control halfway and meanwhile I have learned to run my wheelchair with my left foot. There's a control similar to a tennis ball mounted near the left foot rest of my wheelchair where I can reach it at best.
It was always easy to make new friends. Boy and girls are always interested in me because I'm different, I'm the exotic cripple, the oddity. They are attracted to my helplessness. Girls want to help, to care, to do something good. It's an emotional thing, out of their heart. They are somehow proud to help me. Boys are different. My helplessness makes them a hero. I'm something like a trophy for them, something they can boast with.
But although I can't do anything by myself I don't feel helpless. I do whatever I want to do through my assistance. It's the same as using a car. Or do you feel helpless because your car is broken? For me my assistance is natural. Someone is always there. My friends or at least my personal assistance.
Something was changing in the relation to my girlfriends when boys became interesting. Sometimes I heard my girlfriends whispering and giggling. And talking about boys. I felt excluded. I know what's going on, puberty and growing sexuality. My body has changed a long time ago, my breasts have grown out, and I looked much more feminine now. And of course I got interested in boys. But I knew that this is out of scope for me. I couldn't imagine that someone is really interested in me. I'm not attractive, my arms and the right leg involuntary wriggling around are not alluring, I'm repulsive, strange, ugly and unapproachable.
Over time, I got depressed more and more.
Things changed again some months after my 19
th
birthday. One day Paula found me very sad and in tears. She took me into her arms, tried to comfort me and stroke me caring. I couldn't stop weeping, I was really depressed. At least I told her what I was thinking, that I was in deep doubts about myself.
Am I beautiful? Can I be attractive? I have never seen myself naked, my body, my breasts. I never dared to ask for it, to ask for being undressed and put in front of mirror, nude, my arms and legs fixed so that I can see myself, my whole body. Do I have beautiful breasts? And how does it feel to touch them? This is one thing I can't do. I can't touch myself, never and nowhere.
Paula knew what to do. She visited me a few days later. My parents where off for the weekend, and I was alone with my assistance. They were two, Paula and Lillian, another girlfriend. At first, they asked my assistance to leave us alone as they will take over my care until the next morning. I'd no idea what they have planned.
We had a girls chat, talked about everything, about boys and girls, how it feels, what they do and how they do. It was fantastic, no whisper, no secrets anymore. I was no longer excluded, I was happy.
They wanted to show me everything, touch and feel everything, feel my whole body. And to let me see myself, my body, my breasts, everything. They put me on my bed, undressed me and secured my head in a ruff hidden by a red scarf. Then she put my braces on my legs and locked them straightened. Paula had one more surprise for me, red high heel pumps. No, impossible, I can't wear such shoes on my contorted feet. But Paula did it, she struggled with my toes until they stay straight, and she could slip them in. It was perfect.