I work for a lady who has MS. I like to call myself her personal assistant even though I'm really kinda sorta a care giver. I do some cleaning, cooking, errand running, and taking her out on the town. She is wheelchair bound with no ability to use her legs. When I take her out on the town to run her errands I have to assist her in getting in the van and then be her chauffeur. A handicap parking spot is key in being able to get her in and out of the van. The door needs to be open wide enough to wedge the chair in so she can transfer herself to and from the vehicle.
While driving her around it frustrates me when we can't find a handicap parking spot. It's happened before and I'm sure it will continue to happen. What really peeves me is when someone who isn't disabled borrows or somehow has a car with a handicap parking pass on it and then parks in a spot that is designated for those with disabilities for the convenience of close parking. I have parked in a handicap spot, not for a disability, but for lack of strength and pain it caused me to walk around campus after I had a serious surgery. My pass was given to me by a campus doctor and was temporary. Although it enabled me to park in a handicap spot I usually parked in the metered spots next to them with no cost to me since those were covered by the pass too. That was the only time in my life where I felt I could or needed to park in such a spot. I would never think about doing it otherwise. I am grateful for the legs I have and to be able to walk a distance into a store or wherever it may be.
Running our errands yesterday I got excited for such a perfect parking spot and it was open. We were waiting for one car to pass before I was able to go across and park in that spot. That one car happened to be full of idiots who basically did a u-turn to park the correct way in that spot. I thought what jerks not even knowing if they needed that spot, but it was like when someone takes your spot when they see your blinker on saying you saw it and it's yours. We found another spot and was a good one as well, but while I was taking her chair out of the back I noticed two ladies with way too long of hair get out of the suburban type vehicle and speed walk in like they needed to do their errands fast. There was no visible reason they needed a handicap parking spot. It totally made me mad.
I shouldn't judge. I don't know their situation. For all I know when I was back on campus after a liver resection people probably thought I didn't need to park in those spots either. I could walk just fine. I was just weaker and was trying to prevent more pain.
Still...if you don't need to then DON'T park in spots designated for another use!
5 days ago