I turned in my seat. Will’s face was in shadow and I couldn’t quite make it out.‘Just hold on. Just for a minute.’‘Are you all right?’ I found my gaze dropping towards his chair, afraid some part of him was pinched, or trapped, that I had got something wrong.‘I’m fine. I just . . . ’I could see his pale collar, his dark suit jacket a contrast against it.‘I don’t want to go in just yet. I just want to sit and not have to think about . . . ’ He swallowed.Even in the half-dark it seemed effortful.‘I just . . . want to be a man who has been to a concert with a girl in a red dress. Just for a few minutes more.’I released the door handle.‘Sure.’I closed my eyes and lay my head against the headrest, and we sat there together for a while longer, two people lost in remembered music, half hidden in the shadow of a castle on a moonlit hill.

~ Jojo Moyes

Jojo Moyes Hope Paralysed Quadriplegic

Some disabled people spend a significant amount of their energy on trying to come across as abled or as not that disabled.

~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Mokokoma Mokhonoana Ability Able Abled Act Acting Aphorism Aphorisms Aphorist Aphorists Ashamed Bad Reputation Bedridden Cripple Crippled Debilitated Differently Abled Disability Disable Disabled Disgrace Dishonor Energies Energy Funny Handicapped Hilarious Humiliation Humor Humorous Humour Ignominy Immobilized In A Wheelchair Incapacitated Infirm Joke Jokes Lame Not Bad Not That Bad Opprobrium Out Of Action Paralyzed Paraplegic Pretend Pretending Pretense Quadriplegic Reputation Satire Shame Shamed Shaming Stigma Stigmas Wheelchair Wheelchairs

Don’t you think it’s actually harder for you . . . to adapt, I mean? Because you’ve done all that stuff?’‘Are you asking me if I wish I'd never done it?’‘I’m just wondering if it would have been easier for you. If you’d led a smaller life. To live like this, I mean.’‘I will never, ever regret the things I've done. Because most days, if you’re stuck in one of these, all you have are the places n your memory that you can go to.’ He smiled. It was tight, as if it cost him. ‘So if you’re asking me would I rather be reminiscing about the view of the caste from the minimart, or that lovely row of shops down off the roundabout, then, no. My life was just fine, thanks.

~ Jojo Moyes

Jojo Moyes Adventure Paralysed Quadriplegic Regret Regrets