Do It Myself Blog – Glenda Watson Hyatt

Motivational Speaker

You are Cuter Than GPS

Filed under: Living with a disability — by at 1:01 pm on Wednesday, April 22, 2009

One aspect of my marriage that I truly cherish is the way Darrell and I work together as a team. We accept each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and we work within or around them. What one struggles with, the other one can do with relative ease.

When we are out and about, Darrell is our voice. He is the one who speaks with sales people, hotel staff and other such people. He is translator for me, when needed. And he typical pays – he is better at manipulating debit cards and cash.

Because he has absolutely no sense of direction – he dreams of a global positioning system (GPS) mounted on his wheelchair – I am the navigator, finding our way in unknown places. I lead and Darrell follows right behind. Oh, the places I have led him…!

Last year, while we were in Las Vegas, I was searching for yet another relatively inexpensive place to eat in one of the many hotels that are larger than some cities. Navigating indoors can be harrowing with masses of people not watching where they’re walking, slot machines flashing and ringing, and my eyes stinging from cigarette smoke.

I found an appropriate eatery like I knew exactly where I was going. Darrell came up beside in his wheelchair and said with admiration in his voice,  “You’re cuter than GPS!” My heart melted. The frazzled feeling immediately vaporized.

That is what we do for each other.

Now, I am preparing for my trip to Chicago. I leave in one week today – yikes! But I am making this trip solo; Darrell isn’t coming. This trip I will be pulling double duty as the navigator and the voice.

I am busy preparing printed notes: for assistance to get to the washroom on the plane, for help in using the train, for checking in at the hotel, for requesting an accessible taxi. Its not that I haven’t traveled this way before, but I have become comfortable with having my other team member, my partner, my husband beside me. Isn’t that what marriage is all about?

Technorati Tags: ,,

If you enjoyed this post, consider buying me a chai tea latte. Thanks kindly.

Random Posts

Trackbacks

7 Comments »

Comment by Joanna Young

April 22, 2009 @ 2:05 pm

What a beautiful tale of love 🙂

Good luck in Chicago… I found it a very friendly place, I hope you do too

Comment by Douglas T

April 23, 2009 @ 6:33 am

A beautiful story, thanks for sharing.

Comment by Loree

April 24, 2009 @ 5:56 pm

How cute is he to say that! That is love!

Hope all goes well in Chicago, have fun!

Comment by Karen Lynn

April 24, 2009 @ 6:43 pm

Hi Glenda, I have been following your entries for a while now. And this one about “You are Cuter than GPS” is really very, very sweet. Your article reminded me of the things my husband and I do to help each other in the way each of us individually need it. I invite you to my blog where I write about my marriage.
athttp://www.whispersofhope.org/blog/living-with-a-physical-disability/to-have-and-to-hold:

Comment by Karen Putz

May 4, 2009 @ 6:36 am

Love this one! I was so glad we were able to spend time together on Thursday– can’t wait until we meet again and perhaps actually present together next time! You rocked it at SOBCon from what others are saying! 🙂 (Your time to shine, wasn’t it!)

Comment by Char

May 5, 2009 @ 6:17 am

Glenda – that is so well put! One of the reasons I brought my husband to SOBCon with me was that he travels all the time and is much more comfortable with the whole process than I am. Not that I can’t travel on my own – I am perfectly capable of that – but there is a certain comfort that comes with traveling with your mate.

Anyhow, it was so great to meet you – you are absolutely amazing! I enjoyed spending time with you Saturday evening at Mortons with Wendy and Lorelle.

Comment by Stephen Hopson

May 5, 2009 @ 1:53 pm

I agree with Karen that it was your time to shine at SOBCon09, which is why the two of us ended up not co-presenting with you.

From the comments I’ve seen about your presentation, you truly rocked SOBCon this year and for that I’m very glad! Congratulations!

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>