Stairs to Gratitude

“I cried because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet"

Often attributed to Helen Keller             

By IM Member Gloria E.

The apartments where I canvas local voters have stairs, always one flight, sometimes two flights, and usually two staircases per building, each leading to four apartments on each floor. No elevators.  So, climbing stairs is part of canvassing those buildings.  It isn’t terrible, but I’m not always delighted to do it, particularly because my watch and phone app don’t give me “credit” for all those flights of stairs, and if I’m going to climb them, I want that credit.

While talking to one person today on the second floor, I saw a woman without a foot, climbing the staircase on crutches, carrying several plastic grocery bags.  I was very impressed, and when she went to an apartment which was also on my canvassing list, I was really happy that I had a reason to talk to her.  She had recently moved in, so she wasn’t the voter I was supposed to see at that address, but she was a voter none the less and was interested in where she could vote in this area which was new to her.  She told me she had to go down for more groceries, so I carried up a sack of rice for her—it took me both arms, and I can’t imagine how she could have done it with the crutches—while she carried up more heavy bags.  Then, there were boxes, flat-packed furniture that was left a short distance down the hall from her door.  (Remembering the delivery people who had to carry them up there—I HOPE that they sent two people for that job!)  I was able to rock one box to her door and inside, but the second box was twice as big and heavy.  We managed it with her sitting on the floor lifting the leading edge over her threshold, me in the middle, lifting, and the boy—maybe six or seven—trying to push from the far end, but we got it into the house. 

I had just spoken with the person next door—also a new tenant, and therefore not the person on my canvassing list—who wanted to vote but had no transportation. After helping with the boxes, I mentioned that in passing, and this woman said she would go talk to new neighbor and offer her a ride.  She was not only fending for herself and a child, but offering what she had to help others!

Because she wasn’t the voter listed on my canvassing list for that address, I don’t know her name, or if the boy was a son or grandson, and I certainly didn’t ask how she came to be missing her foot, nor when.  But I hope I never forget her courage - making a new home in a second-floor apartment, carrying what she needed while navigating the stairs on crutches, taking care of a child, wanting to figure out how to vote in a new area, and willing to approach a neighbor and offer help.  What a person!  And I hope I remember this perspective as I think about the comparatively minor challenges I face.