Dear Snow Cougs

It's an end of an era - the era of Snow Cougs - my first wheelchair. It's been sitting in my garage as a box holder the last few months, since I got my newer wheelchair. But when it came time to give him away I started reflecting on our time together. This is the wheelchair I came home from the hospital in on June 21, 2012. This wheelchair was my friend and my most loathed enemy.

While inpatient I would attend different classes and therapies during the day and one of my daily classes was wheelchair class. I absolutely hated that class. They taught us a lot of essential skills - how to get pop a wheelie, get up a curb, transfer into a car, and so much more. But I just saw it as a reminder of how my life has totally changed from even the simplest tasks. I also didn't want to use a wheelchair and knew I'd walk again so I was rather grumpy when I'd go to wheelchair class. 

With time my wheelchair became my friend. He allowed me to go places and do things I couldn't do on my own two feet. With my wheelchair, I returned to school a month later and began student teaching and attending university classes again. This was possible because of my wheelchair. 

There are so many memories with my first wheelchair both good and bad. Whenever I could transfer out of my wheelchair I would. I avoided pictures in my chair for years because I hated the way I looked in my wheelchair. My confidence and self-esteem took some time to recover, as I rediscovered my inner beauty and was reminded that I am not my body. 

This same wheelchair rolled me up to the stage at graduation so I could walk across. At the time I was too week to walk the whole way, but I could walk across the stage and be reunited with my wheelchair on the other side. This wheelchair helped me travel from Hawaii to Africa and many states in between. 

Some SCI identify with their wheelchair & it becomes a part of them. They talk about how they don't like when people touch their wheelchair because its a part of them and their personal space. But for me, I'm constantly in and out of my wheelchair and am not completely confined to it and so I'm a little more detached. That's when I realized my wheelchair wasn't a part of me, but he was my friend that made it possible for me to do so much more than I could walking, but it wasn't apart of me.

For the first couple years I avoided pictures in my wheelchair and would transfer out or stand up and push the chair out of the picture frame. I still feel this way because my wheelchair is not apart of me, but I'm definitely more okay with pictures in my wheelchair since I've come to terms with my body and abilities and have tried to accept and own my situation. 

Still, I transfer out of my chair quite often because I get TB (tired bum) or as I say 

BUTT ANXIETY. Since I have feeling and sensation, it's really difficult to sit in my chair for extended periods of time. 

My wheelchair is being donated to Ghana Make a Difference and will be flown out and used by one of the children whose wheelchair is falling apart. It reassuring that Snow Cougs will continue to serve and be a friend to someone else. I decided to write the recipient of my wheelchair a quick letter. 

June 2018

Dear Yaw (or to whomever receives my wheelchair),

Hi, my name is Brittany Fisher Frank, and I’d like to officially introduce you to my first wheelchair, Snow Cougs – also know as Snow Cougar.

I haven’t always used a wheelchair. But after falling 80 feet in an accident, I was paralyzed from the waist down. This white wheelchair was the one I went home from the hospital in and used for years. This wheelchair became my friend and personal assistant and so I named him after the white wheelchair frame,

Snow Cougs helped me learn how to live life without my legs and how to be independent again. He helped me get around school & so much more. I learned many lessons from my wheelchair.

Most importantly, I learned that we are not our bodies or our disabilities – and neither are you. My wheelchair has taught me that it’s our hearts and spirits that really matter. I’m sure you’ve already learned this and are way ahead of me, but I loved this reminder from President Russell M. Nelson:

“You weren’t chosen for your bodily characteristics, but for your spiritual attributes, such as bravery, courage, integrity of heat, thirst for truth, a hunger for wisdom and a desire to serve.”

I hope that Snow Cougs becomes a loyal friend and helps you get around and live a full and happy life! And I hope you get to learn more lessons together. Feel free to change his name. But I hope he opens as many more opportunities for you, as he did for me! President Thomas S. Monson reminds us:

“Don’t limit yourself and don’t let others convince you that you are limited in what you can do. Believe in yourself and then live as to reach your possibilities. You can achieve what you believe you can!”

Take care of Snow Cougs for me and be LIMITLESS.

Love,

    Brittany

Snow Cougar at the airport making his second trip to Africa, but this time to stay.