I am back! No, I have not abandoned my readers. After almost a month of silence due to my computer passing away and complicating my life, I'm back! Here is part two of the story.
I was feeling very vulnerable on those days I was in the hospital. I have had several operations in my life due to my disability, but this time something was very different. I didn’t have my family with me this time. And it works this way, when you are sick you want your mommy! So I did and I remember the next night after the operation I was on the phone talking with my mommy and my sister from Peru. Also my brother and his wife came to visit me to the hospital that night. At least they lived in the next State over so it was a little easier to see them. That helped.
After a week I was able to go back home. Before I left the hospital, the resident doctor tried to give me a blood transfusion to make up for some of all the blood I had lost. It didn’t work! My veins simply refused to receive anything! Every time they put a needle in, my veins just kind of pushed them out… So finally after 2 or 3 times I just said no more and I went home. I haven’t had those problems since then.
When we left and were on the sidewalk before entering in the car, I was able to see my reflection on the glass walls of the hospital and I was shocked to see my face white as a paper! It was really bad and made me nervous; I had never seen myself or anybody for that matter with that color. I was really anemic and the doctors warned me that I was going to feel very weak and I needed to rest and be lying down as much as I could. Because if I sat for long, the blood was not going to have enough strength to go up the brain much and I was going to feel light headed.
When we got home we realized I was going to need more attention than we thought. I didn’t have any energy, I could not cook or even stay sitting on my chair for long periods of time. Vic took a couple of days off but then he had to go to work, he didn’t have any more vacation days left and we didn’t have anybody to take care of me during the day. We were in trouble! Thank God, my sister volunteered to come from Peru and take care of me for a couple of weeks. That was God’s provision for my need at that time.
I would get up and go sit on the couch because I didn’t want to stay in bed. I felt good for short periods of time, but just as the doctors said, I felt very weak and dizzy all of a sudden and I had to lay down immediately to have the blood go up to my brain. It was a very strange sensation I never experienced before or after that time. It was not pleasant to feel that way. Actually I couldn’t do anything because I felt too weak to do anything. So it was kind of boring. But at least I got to be with my sister during the day and she cooked for us. Then Vic would join us after work that was fun.
My sister and I had a funny thing happen once. We didn’t have much experience using microwave ovens back then and I used the microwave to cook a lot. So one day I wanted her to cook a piece of steak in the microwave and it was in a plastic container. Since I normally used plastic containers to heat the food that was already cooked for a minute (not anymore), and the container was supposed to be microwave safe, I thought it was ok for cooking too and she didn’t know so she followed my instructions. So she started the meat in the microwave and I asked her to leave it there for 15 minutes! Then the meat started to smell really good almost like grilled meat would and I was excited about it. Then by the time the time ended, the plastic container was practically gone since it melted onto the meat and the meat was scorched! So much for steak that day! But it certainly gave us a good laugh and still does every time I remember and we also learned a good lesson!
After the couple of weeks were over my sister had to go back home, but I was pretty much recuperated. At least I could spend more time sitting up and on my chair. Feeling a little weak still but I was able to do things again. Only I was a little shaky emotionally and I have to admit I was afraid to be alone in the apartment thinking what I would do if I felt light headed again. But thank God it didn’t happen. I just had to adapt to life as usual again. After a week after she left I was back to normal.
Only one thing left to say, there is nothing like having family close to you in times of need. I am blessed beyond imagination with the family I have. They are always there for me no matter what or where.... Thank you sis!
August 16, 2010
July 19, 2010
Emergency!
While I was still in Lima, I used to have some feminine problems. Every so often I would have a hemorrhage and my doctor once had to do an operation on me in order to help me. He never found the real reason for these occurrences and mostly he would attribute the problem to stress causing a hormonal imbalance. After 4 months of being in NY, just when I was actually starting a part time job as a receptionist, I had a terrible hemorrhage that would not stop for 3 or 4 hours! I was alone in the apartment and Vic was at the office. I remember I had taken more than one cup of oregano tea, I used to take that in Lima for abdominal cramps, but I didn’t realize at that time that those teas were making the situation worse since they would cause the release of more blood to relieve the pain of the cramps. I called Vic to the office and told him what was happening and he said I should call a nurse from our insurance company since they had one to provide medical advice over the phone, and to call him back to know if he needed to leave the office immediately to come to my aid. I called the nurse, by that time I was already almost fainted, after I explained everything, she said the best thing to do was to call 911 so they can take me to the Emergency Room in the hospital.
So I called 911 and they sent the paramedics in 4 minutes! I called Vic and they all met at my door. When I was waiting for the paramedics, I decided to take the lock of my door off just in case I fainted before they arrived, I was feeling very light headed already and I thought that might happen. The first arriving was the police, they knocked at my door and I just yelled to for them to come in. They did and after a few minutes of asking me questions they gave me an oxygen mask, then the paramedics came along and Vic right behind them. The oxygen prevented me from passing out, they took my vital signs as they continue to ask questions and then just put me on a stretcher. The funny thing was that they would ask Vic a question related to the medical insurance we had and they needed the insurance ID card and Vic didn’t even know where it was at that moment, nerves I guess, so I was the one with oxygen mask and all telling Vic where the ID card was and the necessary info. This made us all laugh at that time. Then they got me into an ambulance. The police and paramedics were very kind to me, made me laugh and helped me to be calm through the whole ordeal. We went to the Valhalla Hospital and into the Emergency Room. It was around 4:00 p.m. The doctor on duty was a resident Gynecologist and she didn’t know what was causing this problem and was concerned because of the blood loss. She called the head Gynecologist to his home. I was there for hours waiting for the specialist to come and see me. They said I had lost lots of blood and was continuing to lose it though not so massively. They could not give me any medicine to stop it since they didn’t know what was causing it. The specialist finally arrived and they took an ultra sound. It seems it was very difficult to see anything on the ultra sound image, the resident couldn’t the specialist did. It was like a miracle. The specialist saw a polyp and it was causing the bleeding. He said that he had to do emergency surgery to remove it and that depending on what he found he would probably have to remove all the feminine organs. He asked me to sign a release form should that be the case, I did.
It was about 9:30 p.m. and they scheduled the surgery for 11:00 p.m. because of the urgency of my case. Other cases took precedence so I officially I didn’t go in for my surgery until shortly after midnight. While we waited in the hallway Vic and I prayed together about the operation and the possibility of my reproductive organs being removed. Not that child bearing was a concern of ours because we had decided we were not going to have children even before we got married. But neither one of us wanted any organ to be removed. We know that every organ has a function and organs work with each other so it’s always better to keep them all if possible. We prayed releasing the control to God, asking that if it was best for me to keep my organs that He would not allow them to be removed and if it was the other way around, He would allow it to happen. One way or the other we prayed that He would give the doctor His wisdom to make the best decision for me. The time came, I went in and Vic stayed in the waiting room all alone until 3:30 a.m. when they came to tell him that I was fine, I was in the recovery room and later they were taking me upstairs to a room and that he should go home to rest.
They didn’t allow him to stay and wait for me in the room where they were taking me, which was a source of disappointment and stress for me when I woke up as they were transporting me to the room and he wasn’t there. It wasn’t his fault, just hospital regulations but in all the surgeries I ever had, I always had someone from my family waiting for me when I woke up. It was this moment that I felt I was sad and a little scared. Then I felt sleep.
I was in the hospital for a week, Vic had to work but he came to have lunch with me every day and later after work too. Everything was well. They didn’t remove anything but the polyp they found. I was very weak for all the blood I had lost and anemic. Other than that, I was fine. I just needed to build up my blood count again so they put me on iron pills.
My recovery story coming next time…
So I called 911 and they sent the paramedics in 4 minutes! I called Vic and they all met at my door. When I was waiting for the paramedics, I decided to take the lock of my door off just in case I fainted before they arrived, I was feeling very light headed already and I thought that might happen. The first arriving was the police, they knocked at my door and I just yelled to for them to come in. They did and after a few minutes of asking me questions they gave me an oxygen mask, then the paramedics came along and Vic right behind them. The oxygen prevented me from passing out, they took my vital signs as they continue to ask questions and then just put me on a stretcher. The funny thing was that they would ask Vic a question related to the medical insurance we had and they needed the insurance ID card and Vic didn’t even know where it was at that moment, nerves I guess, so I was the one with oxygen mask and all telling Vic where the ID card was and the necessary info. This made us all laugh at that time. Then they got me into an ambulance. The police and paramedics were very kind to me, made me laugh and helped me to be calm through the whole ordeal. We went to the Valhalla Hospital and into the Emergency Room. It was around 4:00 p.m. The doctor on duty was a resident Gynecologist and she didn’t know what was causing this problem and was concerned because of the blood loss. She called the head Gynecologist to his home. I was there for hours waiting for the specialist to come and see me. They said I had lost lots of blood and was continuing to lose it though not so massively. They could not give me any medicine to stop it since they didn’t know what was causing it. The specialist finally arrived and they took an ultra sound. It seems it was very difficult to see anything on the ultra sound image, the resident couldn’t the specialist did. It was like a miracle. The specialist saw a polyp and it was causing the bleeding. He said that he had to do emergency surgery to remove it and that depending on what he found he would probably have to remove all the feminine organs. He asked me to sign a release form should that be the case, I did.
It was about 9:30 p.m. and they scheduled the surgery for 11:00 p.m. because of the urgency of my case. Other cases took precedence so I officially I didn’t go in for my surgery until shortly after midnight. While we waited in the hallway Vic and I prayed together about the operation and the possibility of my reproductive organs being removed. Not that child bearing was a concern of ours because we had decided we were not going to have children even before we got married. But neither one of us wanted any organ to be removed. We know that every organ has a function and organs work with each other so it’s always better to keep them all if possible. We prayed releasing the control to God, asking that if it was best for me to keep my organs that He would not allow them to be removed and if it was the other way around, He would allow it to happen. One way or the other we prayed that He would give the doctor His wisdom to make the best decision for me. The time came, I went in and Vic stayed in the waiting room all alone until 3:30 a.m. when they came to tell him that I was fine, I was in the recovery room and later they were taking me upstairs to a room and that he should go home to rest.
They didn’t allow him to stay and wait for me in the room where they were taking me, which was a source of disappointment and stress for me when I woke up as they were transporting me to the room and he wasn’t there. It wasn’t his fault, just hospital regulations but in all the surgeries I ever had, I always had someone from my family waiting for me when I woke up. It was this moment that I felt I was sad and a little scared. Then I felt sleep.
I was in the hospital for a week, Vic had to work but he came to have lunch with me every day and later after work too. Everything was well. They didn’t remove anything but the polyp they found. I was very weak for all the blood I had lost and anemic. Other than that, I was fine. I just needed to build up my blood count again so they put me on iron pills.
My recovery story coming next time…
June 29, 2010
Powerless
The area of New York where we lived, was not the “Big Apple” (NY City), it was a small town called Thornwood or “wood of thorns” not too far from Manhattan. Lots of trees, no sidewalks on the side streets, only on the main streets, long distances, country like. The only memory I could compare it to, was the area of Las Casuarinas or Chosica in Lima, only more contemporary, but the idea was the same. Then we had spots where there were opened shopping centers where you had the bank, the supermarket, the dry cleaners, the laundry mat, restaurants and of course a pharmacy and some retail stores.
The most typical thing in NY and across the North East is the Diner. These are family restaurants where the locals go normally not for special occasions only but almost every other day to have the soup of the day or whatever is on the menu that you like and is almost like a home-made meal when you don’t want to cook. They are very affordable and the cooking is really great! We had one in our town and we became regulars too. It is the kind of place where you make friends with your waitress. We met this nice little lady, older than us, she was so diligent and fast in her service and also very friendly, she made you feel like you where home. She had worked there for many years and she had had 2 heart attacks but she continued to work as lovingly as she could. We miss her.
One afternoon I was shopping in a supermarket a couple of blocks away and I had elevated my seat to reach something in the store. When I left the store and was on the sidewalk I started to lower my seat to its normal position and all of the sudden the chair stopped moving! I didn’t know what was going on at first, then I realized that one item that was in the bag I had hanging from my seatbelt had gotten under the seat and onto the base of the chair and was stuck. It was a little glass bottle and when the seat came down and found the bottle’s resistance, the fuse blew! And to my surprise, the bottle didn’t break! The problem now was I was on the street alone, the chair didn’t move, I didn’t have a cell phone and it was freezing! I was powerless! The good thing is that when there is a pressing situation like this, I go into “emergency mode” and I try to resolve the situation in spite of my feelings. So I immediately thought that I needed to call Vic at the office so he could come and get me. The problem was that I didn’t have a cell phone to call him. Thank God I was right next to the supermarket’s door and there was public phone a little bit further down on the sidewalk. The thing was how could I get to the phone? Well God sent me an “angel”, I needed help. It so happened that a guy that worked in the store was on his break and he was right there just resting. I talked to him and explained what happened and asked him to disengage the brakes of my chair and to push me toward the public phone so I can call Vic. So he did. He was from Argentina and it was easy to have a conversation with him since we had things in common. I called Vic and he left the office to come to pick me up. The store employee went back to work but every so often came out to see if I needed anything until Vic came.
Once Vic finally got there it was much colder and unfortunately my power chair could not fit in our car so Vic had to push me back home and these chairs are really heavy! But there was no other choice. When we got home Vic asked for help to the neighbors to push me up the hill and get me home where I could call someone to come repair my chair the next day. Then he had to go back to the store to pick up the car. And everything went back to normal.
I don’t think that I ever had experienced feelings of such powerlessness before that. There are moments in life when we feel like that. Life escapes our control, we don’t understand what is happening or why and we don’t know what to do. We feel that is all over and for a moment we feel that there is nothing that we can do to change our situation. We wish that we would have another way to resolve things but there is none. Desperately, we try things and they fail pushing us further down into more powerlessness. I learned a very powerful lesson that day that I still apply now and I have through the years every time I have experienced these situations in any area of my life.
For starters, don’t panic! Put your trust in the Lord and seek wisdom. Then, look for solutions and if necessary, ask for help. Learn to take precautions, next time don’t put your shopping bag there and always carry a cell phone for emergencies! I said to myself and this I have done. Lastly, if there is a situation that really does not have a way for you to resolve it, then cast all your care upon the Lord and stand. Wait for His deliverance. He will always be there for you.
See you next week!
The most typical thing in NY and across the North East is the Diner. These are family restaurants where the locals go normally not for special occasions only but almost every other day to have the soup of the day or whatever is on the menu that you like and is almost like a home-made meal when you don’t want to cook. They are very affordable and the cooking is really great! We had one in our town and we became regulars too. It is the kind of place where you make friends with your waitress. We met this nice little lady, older than us, she was so diligent and fast in her service and also very friendly, she made you feel like you where home. She had worked there for many years and she had had 2 heart attacks but she continued to work as lovingly as she could. We miss her.
One afternoon I was shopping in a supermarket a couple of blocks away and I had elevated my seat to reach something in the store. When I left the store and was on the sidewalk I started to lower my seat to its normal position and all of the sudden the chair stopped moving! I didn’t know what was going on at first, then I realized that one item that was in the bag I had hanging from my seatbelt had gotten under the seat and onto the base of the chair and was stuck. It was a little glass bottle and when the seat came down and found the bottle’s resistance, the fuse blew! And to my surprise, the bottle didn’t break! The problem now was I was on the street alone, the chair didn’t move, I didn’t have a cell phone and it was freezing! I was powerless! The good thing is that when there is a pressing situation like this, I go into “emergency mode” and I try to resolve the situation in spite of my feelings. So I immediately thought that I needed to call Vic at the office so he could come and get me. The problem was that I didn’t have a cell phone to call him. Thank God I was right next to the supermarket’s door and there was public phone a little bit further down on the sidewalk. The thing was how could I get to the phone? Well God sent me an “angel”, I needed help. It so happened that a guy that worked in the store was on his break and he was right there just resting. I talked to him and explained what happened and asked him to disengage the brakes of my chair and to push me toward the public phone so I can call Vic. So he did. He was from Argentina and it was easy to have a conversation with him since we had things in common. I called Vic and he left the office to come to pick me up. The store employee went back to work but every so often came out to see if I needed anything until Vic came.
Once Vic finally got there it was much colder and unfortunately my power chair could not fit in our car so Vic had to push me back home and these chairs are really heavy! But there was no other choice. When we got home Vic asked for help to the neighbors to push me up the hill and get me home where I could call someone to come repair my chair the next day. Then he had to go back to the store to pick up the car. And everything went back to normal.
I don’t think that I ever had experienced feelings of such powerlessness before that. There are moments in life when we feel like that. Life escapes our control, we don’t understand what is happening or why and we don’t know what to do. We feel that is all over and for a moment we feel that there is nothing that we can do to change our situation. We wish that we would have another way to resolve things but there is none. Desperately, we try things and they fail pushing us further down into more powerlessness. I learned a very powerful lesson that day that I still apply now and I have through the years every time I have experienced these situations in any area of my life.
For starters, don’t panic! Put your trust in the Lord and seek wisdom. Then, look for solutions and if necessary, ask for help. Learn to take precautions, next time don’t put your shopping bag there and always carry a cell phone for emergencies! I said to myself and this I have done. Lastly, if there is a situation that really does not have a way for you to resolve it, then cast all your care upon the Lord and stand. Wait for His deliverance. He will always be there for you.
See you next week!
June 21, 2010
The Chair
During the first week in the apartment, it was not possible for me to go out because of the steps at the entrance. We got a carpenter to make a ramp and a little platform right in front of the door so I could have a place where to turn and face the door to enter and exit before the inclination started. It was a good construction that survived the rain and the snow and also the scorching sun during the summer for all the time we were there. And it probably is still in use! Here is an image of the ramp. On the left of the picture you can see ( a little dark) a little wall that was supporting dirt and plants, right in front to our door and window.
We still didn’t have furniture and Vic used a plastic crate to sit and we used the little table of my wheelchair as our table to eat. We borrowed some dishes and pots from Vic’s mom and started cooking there. It was fun to start doing these things. Pretty soon we were getting some of Vic’s old furniture and buying some new ones as well as our kitchen utensils. I knew how to cook, even though I didn’t use to do it on a regular basis when I was in Lima. I didn’t have the time or the need since there was always someone taking care of me. My mom first and then I had a housekeeper who helped me with all the domestic chores. Here I could cook as long as I adapted everything to the right height so I could reach the things I needed to be able to do it. So we did organize things the best we could. Lord! Sure I missed my housekeeper to help me with the house chores! (Well, I missed her too. I loved her like a daughter). But that was my job now and all I can say is that I appreciated more than ever all what my family and she did for me on a daily basis.
One day, when we were visiting Vic’s mom, I saw a commercial on TV about a motorized wheelchair and how much independence it could bring to someone with a disability like me. I had seen them in Canada years ago but I never had one. This seemed like the best time in my life to have one. These chairs are expensive but they are also the kind of medical equipment that a medical insurance policy covers and I was insured by Vic’s medical insurance provided by his employer, so what better opportunity than this to try to get one. So I asked for a demo video and a personal demonstration conducted at my home. Days later, they went to our apartment and showed us all the features of the chair. It was really good, impressive! But we decided we wanted to shop around and look for other options. We did, and we found an even better chair! Here I am going down the driveway with my mom:
The chair had more than enough stability for going down the steep driveway we had. We had the demonstration done and I got to try it! It was great! But I was really scared trying to go down the driveway, but it was safe. The insurance company paid the chair after my doctor sent the information to them and proof that I have a medical reason to own one. We paid just a minimum fee of the thousands of dollars it cost.
Thank God for His provision!
A couple of weeks later or so, they delivered my new chair. I can’t even explain how thrilling that experience was. Learning to drive the chair indoors was very easy for me. It gave me a freedom I had never experienced before in my life, except of course when I learned how to drive a car many years before, but that is a different story.
The new chair gave me the ability to move much faster around my home and also to carry things with one hand and drive the chair with the other, which you really can’t do with a manual chair, you need both hands to drive. Also, one of the best features the chair had was a seat elevator. I could go up and reach things that normally would be out of my reach like something in the medicine cabinet or kitchen cabinet. After a short time of learning to control the chair well indoors, I went to explore my town. At first, I asked Vic to come down the driveway with me so I didn’t get too afraid and until I got used to the feeling of going down in such a steep inclination. I think that I never got rid completely of the fear of going down. I just got used to do it in spite of it. But I did go down and I did go out and about and it was marvelous!
With my chair I was able to go to different places, we had banks and supermarkets and retail stores and other places. I used to go shopping for groceries, to the bank or the pharmacy. We did not have a lot of sidewalks but at least the most important streets had them as well as the shopping centers around. We had two. Going to these places felt so good. Being able to do all these things by myself when Vic was working or with him when we would go for walks together or to do something around the neighborhood was a source of joy to me. It made me appreciate the simple things in life that I never did on my own before and I was grateful that I always had someone to do them for me. These experiences made me appreciate life on a different level, on the simplest things and I could realize we should not take things for granted.
I'll be back with more next time!
We still didn’t have furniture and Vic used a plastic crate to sit and we used the little table of my wheelchair as our table to eat. We borrowed some dishes and pots from Vic’s mom and started cooking there. It was fun to start doing these things. Pretty soon we were getting some of Vic’s old furniture and buying some new ones as well as our kitchen utensils. I knew how to cook, even though I didn’t use to do it on a regular basis when I was in Lima. I didn’t have the time or the need since there was always someone taking care of me. My mom first and then I had a housekeeper who helped me with all the domestic chores. Here I could cook as long as I adapted everything to the right height so I could reach the things I needed to be able to do it. So we did organize things the best we could. Lord! Sure I missed my housekeeper to help me with the house chores! (Well, I missed her too. I loved her like a daughter). But that was my job now and all I can say is that I appreciated more than ever all what my family and she did for me on a daily basis.One day, when we were visiting Vic’s mom, I saw a commercial on TV about a motorized wheelchair and how much independence it could bring to someone with a disability like me. I had seen them in Canada years ago but I never had one. This seemed like the best time in my life to have one. These chairs are expensive but they are also the kind of medical equipment that a medical insurance policy covers and I was insured by Vic’s medical insurance provided by his employer, so what better opportunity than this to try to get one. So I asked for a demo video and a personal demonstration conducted at my home. Days later, they went to our apartment and showed us all the features of the chair. It was really good, impressive! But we decided we wanted to shop around and look for other options. We did, and we found an even better chair! Here I am going down the driveway with my mom:
Thank God for His provision!
A couple of weeks later or so, they delivered my new chair. I can’t even explain how thrilling that experience was. Learning to drive the chair indoors was very easy for me. It gave me a freedom I had never experienced before in my life, except of course when I learned how to drive a car many years before, but that is a different story.
The new chair gave me the ability to move much faster around my home and also to carry things with one hand and drive the chair with the other, which you really can’t do with a manual chair, you need both hands to drive. Also, one of the best features the chair had was a seat elevator. I could go up and reach things that normally would be out of my reach like something in the medicine cabinet or kitchen cabinet. After a short time of learning to control the chair well indoors, I went to explore my town. At first, I asked Vic to come down the driveway with me so I didn’t get too afraid and until I got used to the feeling of going down in such a steep inclination. I think that I never got rid completely of the fear of going down. I just got used to do it in spite of it. But I did go down and I did go out and about and it was marvelous!
With my chair I was able to go to different places, we had banks and supermarkets and retail stores and other places. I used to go shopping for groceries, to the bank or the pharmacy. We did not have a lot of sidewalks but at least the most important streets had them as well as the shopping centers around. We had two. Going to these places felt so good. Being able to do all these things by myself when Vic was working or with him when we would go for walks together or to do something around the neighborhood was a source of joy to me. It made me appreciate the simple things in life that I never did on my own before and I was grateful that I always had someone to do them for me. These experiences made me appreciate life on a different level, on the simplest things and I could realize we should not take things for granted.
I'll be back with more next time!
June 10, 2010
The Apartment
Finally! After 2 months of living in the motel, one day at lunch time we went to see an apartment with a Realtor and even though it was not perfect, it was good enough to start our first home. It was a building on a hill and there were 4 small stores on the first floor in the front and 4 one bedroom apartments on the second floor in the back. The only way to get to the apartments upstairs was an uneven stone and concrete stairway or the very steep driveway that had a flat area on the top where you could park the car temporarily.
It looked something like this…
The flat area on the top was the only way I could get to the apartment but it was enough for me to be able to exit the car and get in. Then there were two very high steps at the door, the Realtor and Vic carried me in this first time, but if we liked the apartment we could install a ramp on the entrance so that obstacle could easily be fixed.
Once we entered, we saw a very large room that had a fridge, a stove and a sink. That was the living room, dining room and kitchen area, 3 in one. Large enough for those three rooms to fit in there. Then there was a little hall that led to the bathroom and I could get through the door, yippie!!! But I could not face the sink it was on the left side next to the door so I had to approach it sideways! Then the next room was the bedroom. It was big and it had a small walk in closet. That was it. We liked it. It was comfortable and had a good price so we decided to rent it. Thinking “for a year it’s not bad”, it was a good start at that moment, we would leave the motel and then later on when the lease ended we would look for something better. We never expected that we would stay there for the next 5 years!
The day finally came we went to the apartment in the morning with our luggage. The Realtor helped Vic to get me in gave us the keys and left. Vic left for the office since he didn’t have any more vacation days and I was staying in the empty apartment to wait for the only piece of furniture that we had at that moment. It was a new bed that was going to be delivered from the store. After the delivery, there was nothing for me to do, no TV, no phone, could not go out… The only thing we had there was a radio/CD player and things to read. But in so many hours you get bored and don’t know what else to do. One thing was for sure, reality started to sink in that day.
That was the moment to take a look into my life and how much it had changed in such a short time. I had spent the last ten years of my life surrounded by people that would have valued tremendously to spend just ten minutes talking with me. People that respected me sought my counsel and wanted to be around me. Lots of people, hundreds of them. As one of the pastors of a 7,000 member congregation I was popular, everybody knew me since I used to preach regularly to about 900 people at one time. I taught classes to groups from 20 to 100 students per group. And as a counselor I would see around 15 individuals a week privately in my office. At many moments during the course of my life, I had experienced how it feels to be surrounded by people and feel lonely on the inside. Until the day when I opened my heart to the Lord, in 1979. Then I knew that I would never feel lonely again, independently of having people around me or not. Now I was alone in an empty apartment, but for sure I was not lonely.
It was the Lord and me, we needed to talk. I had been praying, Vic and I did pray together too. But with all the moving and the excitement, visiting different places and things like that, God and I did not have this special time of reflection to put things into perspective. This was my big opportunity to do that. The first thing I realized was that somehow, this Country felt like home. It was a strange thing to feel since I just had left the place where I was born and raised. But this was a different sense of belonging; I guess it could be what you call a “calling”. All I know is that when I opened my heart to Jesus I was in Canada, and being in NY almost two decades later, North America felt like home. I believe that God has a purpose in bringing me to the US and this is beyond being married with Vic.
The second thing I realized was that all the people that surrounded me were gone along with my popularity. Here, I was not popular, nobody knew me and there was no one to talk to except for my husband. I didn’t even use the same last name I had in Peru! So it really was like starting a new life, a new identity… These realizations were interesting, created maybe a little bit of uncertainty, but they were a good thing to know so I would be able to grasp my new reality, accept it and start living this new life knowing that as a blank page in the story of my life, it started to be written as I went forward with my Lord guiding me and my husband besides me.
When there is a change in your life, like the one I had, stop, assess the situation, accept your reality and keep on going. I wish for you that you will open your heart to the Lord too so you don’t have to do this alone.
Thank you for reading my blog, see you next week.
It looked something like this…
The flat area on the top was the only way I could get to the apartment but it was enough for me to be able to exit the car and get in. Then there were two very high steps at the door, the Realtor and Vic carried me in this first time, but if we liked the apartment we could install a ramp on the entrance so that obstacle could easily be fixed.
Once we entered, we saw a very large room that had a fridge, a stove and a sink. That was the living room, dining room and kitchen area, 3 in one. Large enough for those three rooms to fit in there. Then there was a little hall that led to the bathroom and I could get through the door, yippie!!! But I could not face the sink it was on the left side next to the door so I had to approach it sideways! Then the next room was the bedroom. It was big and it had a small walk in closet. That was it. We liked it. It was comfortable and had a good price so we decided to rent it. Thinking “for a year it’s not bad”, it was a good start at that moment, we would leave the motel and then later on when the lease ended we would look for something better. We never expected that we would stay there for the next 5 years!
The day finally came we went to the apartment in the morning with our luggage. The Realtor helped Vic to get me in gave us the keys and left. Vic left for the office since he didn’t have any more vacation days and I was staying in the empty apartment to wait for the only piece of furniture that we had at that moment. It was a new bed that was going to be delivered from the store. After the delivery, there was nothing for me to do, no TV, no phone, could not go out… The only thing we had there was a radio/CD player and things to read. But in so many hours you get bored and don’t know what else to do. One thing was for sure, reality started to sink in that day.
That was the moment to take a look into my life and how much it had changed in such a short time. I had spent the last ten years of my life surrounded by people that would have valued tremendously to spend just ten minutes talking with me. People that respected me sought my counsel and wanted to be around me. Lots of people, hundreds of them. As one of the pastors of a 7,000 member congregation I was popular, everybody knew me since I used to preach regularly to about 900 people at one time. I taught classes to groups from 20 to 100 students per group. And as a counselor I would see around 15 individuals a week privately in my office. At many moments during the course of my life, I had experienced how it feels to be surrounded by people and feel lonely on the inside. Until the day when I opened my heart to the Lord, in 1979. Then I knew that I would never feel lonely again, independently of having people around me or not. Now I was alone in an empty apartment, but for sure I was not lonely.
It was the Lord and me, we needed to talk. I had been praying, Vic and I did pray together too. But with all the moving and the excitement, visiting different places and things like that, God and I did not have this special time of reflection to put things into perspective. This was my big opportunity to do that. The first thing I realized was that somehow, this Country felt like home. It was a strange thing to feel since I just had left the place where I was born and raised. But this was a different sense of belonging; I guess it could be what you call a “calling”. All I know is that when I opened my heart to Jesus I was in Canada, and being in NY almost two decades later, North America felt like home. I believe that God has a purpose in bringing me to the US and this is beyond being married with Vic.
The second thing I realized was that all the people that surrounded me were gone along with my popularity. Here, I was not popular, nobody knew me and there was no one to talk to except for my husband. I didn’t even use the same last name I had in Peru! So it really was like starting a new life, a new identity… These realizations were interesting, created maybe a little bit of uncertainty, but they were a good thing to know so I would be able to grasp my new reality, accept it and start living this new life knowing that as a blank page in the story of my life, it started to be written as I went forward with my Lord guiding me and my husband besides me.
When there is a change in your life, like the one I had, stop, assess the situation, accept your reality and keep on going. I wish for you that you will open your heart to the Lord too so you don’t have to do this alone.
Thank you for reading my blog, see you next week.
June 2, 2010
The Galleria
The mall where I used to go was called “The Galleria”. I spent several afternoons there after that first time I was telling you about on my last post. We used to go there for food when we were not visiting Vic’s family. Still living in the motel, we found that the food in The Galleria’s food court was better in quality, with more choices and cheaper than some of the original food we were eating on take out so that was our place to eat. If there is one thing we remember dearly as a food choice that we have not eaten since we left New York is Bourbon Chicken from the Bourbon Café. They diced the chicken in very little pieces, marinated it with bourbon and grilled it. It was so delicious! And they were smart to attract the customers, they would have someone standing by on the aisle in front of the food court where people would walk by to see what was available to eat in the different places they had there and offered free samples of this wonderful chicken from a tray full of pieces on tooth picks. Once you tried one you were hooked and knew exactly what you would be having for dinner that night! In all the trips we have made across America, we have not found this chicken again, anywhere. It would be fun to go back one day just to try it again!
On another afternoon that I stayed in The Galleria, Vic and I were going to meet at a place called Auntie Anne’s, they made fresh pretzels right there in front of you. So we were going to have a pretzel there but since it was only a counter style store, there were no chairs available to sit and eat for a little while so Vic took me to the public benches they had at The Galleria for anyone who wanted to rest, so he could have his hands free when they gave him the order. He went back to the store to pick up the pretzels and I waited at these benches. All of a sudden, this man appeared out of nowhere and sat on one of the benches and asked me if he could help me. Now, this did not make a lot of sense because I was not doing anything to help me with! I was just sitting there waiting for Vic. So I said “no thank you”, not giving any importance to the situation. And I added “my husband is coming right now” and I looked on the direction that Vic was actually coming with the pretzels and a drink. The minute this man saw Vic coming he disappeared faster than he appeared. Vic was very agitated because he told me he perceived danger when he saw this man around me. And he was ready to get rid of him but did not have the chance because the man was not there anymore by the time Vic arrived. It was actually odd that Vic felt this way because he is very friendly and normally he would have said hi to a stranger if it was a normal situation, but he felt it was not.
At first, I sincerely thought that Vic was exaggerating, and that maybe he was a little jealous and I really thought there was no danger involved. But after giving it some thought, I realized that it was really suspicious that this man disappeared as soon as he knew my husband was coming. And I thought that if his intention were good, he would have stayed and say hi to my husband like other people would do. Americans, in general, are very friendly and if they can help you on the street in some way, they do.
Now, looking back, I have a deeper perspective on this. First of all, I remember that when I left Lima, we only had one big mall and it was fairly new, the Jockey Plaza. So being in a big store in Lima meant maybe a department store like Sears that changed its name to Saga when Sears left. And the environment is totally different than in a mall in America. You are not alone there even if you go by yourself because it is not that big as a mall is here. And there are always other shoppers around you besides the sales people. So in fact, this was also the first time I was faced with a situation like this and it never occurred to me that there was a potential danger there. Now, that I have lived here for years, I know that malls are some of the places where evil people look for their next victim of any crime they are planning to commit. Either robbery or kidnapping of a minor or drug dealings, these things can occur in a regular mall in America. Please don’t get scared. Crime occurs everywhere and anywhere in the world inside stores or outside on the streets and that does not mean it will occur all the time and we should just get a good lock and stay home for the rest of our lives! No, malls are in general, very secure, they have guards that work for the mall and patrol the mall and the parking lot. Also, because there is a big amount of people that go to the malls, that helps to kind of look for each other too. But it is good to have the eyes wide open and be reasonably careful because, unfortunately, not everybody has good intentions. That was my lesson that night.
On my next post I will be sharing with you how we finally found our apartment and moved in. There was where a new phase of the story started!
On another afternoon that I stayed in The Galleria, Vic and I were going to meet at a place called Auntie Anne’s, they made fresh pretzels right there in front of you. So we were going to have a pretzel there but since it was only a counter style store, there were no chairs available to sit and eat for a little while so Vic took me to the public benches they had at The Galleria for anyone who wanted to rest, so he could have his hands free when they gave him the order. He went back to the store to pick up the pretzels and I waited at these benches. All of a sudden, this man appeared out of nowhere and sat on one of the benches and asked me if he could help me. Now, this did not make a lot of sense because I was not doing anything to help me with! I was just sitting there waiting for Vic. So I said “no thank you”, not giving any importance to the situation. And I added “my husband is coming right now” and I looked on the direction that Vic was actually coming with the pretzels and a drink. The minute this man saw Vic coming he disappeared faster than he appeared. Vic was very agitated because he told me he perceived danger when he saw this man around me. And he was ready to get rid of him but did not have the chance because the man was not there anymore by the time Vic arrived. It was actually odd that Vic felt this way because he is very friendly and normally he would have said hi to a stranger if it was a normal situation, but he felt it was not.
At first, I sincerely thought that Vic was exaggerating, and that maybe he was a little jealous and I really thought there was no danger involved. But after giving it some thought, I realized that it was really suspicious that this man disappeared as soon as he knew my husband was coming. And I thought that if his intention were good, he would have stayed and say hi to my husband like other people would do. Americans, in general, are very friendly and if they can help you on the street in some way, they do.
Now, looking back, I have a deeper perspective on this. First of all, I remember that when I left Lima, we only had one big mall and it was fairly new, the Jockey Plaza. So being in a big store in Lima meant maybe a department store like Sears that changed its name to Saga when Sears left. And the environment is totally different than in a mall in America. You are not alone there even if you go by yourself because it is not that big as a mall is here. And there are always other shoppers around you besides the sales people. So in fact, this was also the first time I was faced with a situation like this and it never occurred to me that there was a potential danger there. Now, that I have lived here for years, I know that malls are some of the places where evil people look for their next victim of any crime they are planning to commit. Either robbery or kidnapping of a minor or drug dealings, these things can occur in a regular mall in America. Please don’t get scared. Crime occurs everywhere and anywhere in the world inside stores or outside on the streets and that does not mean it will occur all the time and we should just get a good lock and stay home for the rest of our lives! No, malls are in general, very secure, they have guards that work for the mall and patrol the mall and the parking lot. Also, because there is a big amount of people that go to the malls, that helps to kind of look for each other too. But it is good to have the eyes wide open and be reasonably careful because, unfortunately, not everybody has good intentions. That was my lesson that night.
On my next post I will be sharing with you how we finally found our apartment and moved in. There was where a new phase of the story started!
May 24, 2010
The Mall
We had to get creative while we were still looking for an apartment to establish our residence. I could not stay in the Motel room for so long every day. There was nowhere to go and after a while after you do all you can do, it gets really boring in a situation like that. Obviously I could not go to Vic’s office every day to wait for him so that is how we came up with the idea that I could stay in the mall for the afternoon every so often and we would alternate my “waiting places” to keep me entertained and active until we had a more normal situation.
So one day that we had lunch at the mall, we decided I was going to stay and Vic was going to pick me up after work. This may sound like a very normal situation to you, but for me it was an incredible adventure. The reason why was that I had never been left alone in a public place like this in my whole life! When I was in Lima, I always had someone with me when I went out of my home. I needed help pushing my chair. I didn’t have enough strength in my arms to drive my chair for long distances. Mostly due to polio affecting my left arm from the shoulder to the elbow, so that meant most of the effort to drive the chair was on the right arm and there was just not enough thrust. Also, in Miraflores, there were no cuts on the sidewalks except for Avenida Larco, which is the commercial area and I needed to go up and down the sidewalks to be able to cross the street. I couldn’t do that on my own. I only move around on my own at home or at work, but never outside. So being at the mall by myself was something huge to me.
The floors in the mall were so smooth and shiny, no steps or uneven places, so I didn’t have any major problems driving my chair. Only that I would move really slowly, but after all, I had hours to explore and do whatever I wanted so who cared! I was 41 years old and I felt like I was a teenager going out to the mall alone for the first time. I had a sense of wonder and was a little afraid at the same time. This was a place of exploration and a challenge too, it was exciting!
The Mall had three floors and a glass elevator to go up and down plus the escalator. I started on the first floor, after Vic and I located the bathrooms and the paid phones to make sure I could reach the phone to call him later. (We didn’t have cell phones at that time). These phones in the mall were on a wall with half booths. There were four of them and only one of them was placed at the height that I could reach, that was the “accessible” phone for disabled people. The fact that here in the US there are so many things that are accessible for people with disabilities is a wonderful thing. Now I am used to it but back then I was really impressed and enjoying every time I discovered something that was accessible to me! It makes you feel that you count too, just like anybody else does. Unfortunately, in my Country we didn’t have that kind of access to regular services and even buildings. At least, not in the time I used to live there Now I understand things are changing and they are paying much more attention to these things. In great part due to the wonderful work of Michael Urtecho Medina, a Peruvian congressman with a disability. You can read his story in English here: http://sites.google.com/site/boletinan/urtecho/BiographyMichael.htm?attredirects=0 And if you can read Spanish, this is the link to his blog: http://congresistamichaelurtechomedina.blogspot.com/
Going back to my story, after locating these important services, Vic would leave and I started my adventure. The first time I browsed through some stores and boutiques. Not many since I would spend some time in each. It was just window shopping but I like to see details and compare prices when I do that. When I went to department stores I could just spend the whole time in one store since they are so big. I remember when I went to Sears and they had a sale on raincoats. I never had one, I never really needed one because in Lima it practically didn’t rain and when it did, it was just what you would call a drizzle in the US, so a raincoat was too much! But I was in New York and I knew it rains there and had already seen rain a couple of times so I thought it would be a good idea to have one, only that the summer was rapidly approaching and I wasn’t sure it was worth to buy it at that time of the year. But before I shopped I called Vic to ask his opinion. And when I asked the question he said yes, it would be a great idea. Then I told him my doubts in buying then because of the summer and he said it rains here all the time! I went “even in the summer?” and he just laughed and laughed and said “yes, even in the summer!” It was a funny moment, but honestly, I got a sinking feeling in my stomach because the summer is the season I love the most and we never had rain during the summer in Lima (except when “El Niño” current is active). And that made me sad because I realized at that moment that certain things were going to be so different for me for the rest of my life. And I was naive and new to many things I needed to learn and adapt, but it was ok, it needed to be like that. “Once you get on the horse, keep galloping!”
So one day that we had lunch at the mall, we decided I was going to stay and Vic was going to pick me up after work. This may sound like a very normal situation to you, but for me it was an incredible adventure. The reason why was that I had never been left alone in a public place like this in my whole life! When I was in Lima, I always had someone with me when I went out of my home. I needed help pushing my chair. I didn’t have enough strength in my arms to drive my chair for long distances. Mostly due to polio affecting my left arm from the shoulder to the elbow, so that meant most of the effort to drive the chair was on the right arm and there was just not enough thrust. Also, in Miraflores, there were no cuts on the sidewalks except for Avenida Larco, which is the commercial area and I needed to go up and down the sidewalks to be able to cross the street. I couldn’t do that on my own. I only move around on my own at home or at work, but never outside. So being at the mall by myself was something huge to me.
The floors in the mall were so smooth and shiny, no steps or uneven places, so I didn’t have any major problems driving my chair. Only that I would move really slowly, but after all, I had hours to explore and do whatever I wanted so who cared! I was 41 years old and I felt like I was a teenager going out to the mall alone for the first time. I had a sense of wonder and was a little afraid at the same time. This was a place of exploration and a challenge too, it was exciting!
The Mall had three floors and a glass elevator to go up and down plus the escalator. I started on the first floor, after Vic and I located the bathrooms and the paid phones to make sure I could reach the phone to call him later. (We didn’t have cell phones at that time). These phones in the mall were on a wall with half booths. There were four of them and only one of them was placed at the height that I could reach, that was the “accessible” phone for disabled people. The fact that here in the US there are so many things that are accessible for people with disabilities is a wonderful thing. Now I am used to it but back then I was really impressed and enjoying every time I discovered something that was accessible to me! It makes you feel that you count too, just like anybody else does. Unfortunately, in my Country we didn’t have that kind of access to regular services and even buildings. At least, not in the time I used to live there Now I understand things are changing and they are paying much more attention to these things. In great part due to the wonderful work of Michael Urtecho Medina, a Peruvian congressman with a disability. You can read his story in English here: http://sites.google.com/site/boletinan/urtecho/BiographyMichael.htm?attredirects=0 And if you can read Spanish, this is the link to his blog: http://congresistamichaelurtechomedina.blogspot.com/
Going back to my story, after locating these important services, Vic would leave and I started my adventure. The first time I browsed through some stores and boutiques. Not many since I would spend some time in each. It was just window shopping but I like to see details and compare prices when I do that. When I went to department stores I could just spend the whole time in one store since they are so big. I remember when I went to Sears and they had a sale on raincoats. I never had one, I never really needed one because in Lima it practically didn’t rain and when it did, it was just what you would call a drizzle in the US, so a raincoat was too much! But I was in New York and I knew it rains there and had already seen rain a couple of times so I thought it would be a good idea to have one, only that the summer was rapidly approaching and I wasn’t sure it was worth to buy it at that time of the year. But before I shopped I called Vic to ask his opinion. And when I asked the question he said yes, it would be a great idea. Then I told him my doubts in buying then because of the summer and he said it rains here all the time! I went “even in the summer?” and he just laughed and laughed and said “yes, even in the summer!” It was a funny moment, but honestly, I got a sinking feeling in my stomach because the summer is the season I love the most and we never had rain during the summer in Lima (except when “El Niño” current is active). And that made me sad because I realized at that moment that certain things were going to be so different for me for the rest of my life. And I was naive and new to many things I needed to learn and adapt, but it was ok, it needed to be like that. “Once you get on the horse, keep galloping!”
May 16, 2010
Motel Life and Food
I can’t believe how many days went by and I didn’t get my post out there for you to read! There is just so much to do and life seems to pass me by like a car on a speed race! Anyway, here I am again and continue with the story.
After a week or so, it was time to move on to some more affordable place so on a week night, after we finished packing at 2 o’clock in the morning, we moved out of the apartment-hotel. Vic had to make 2 trips in the rain just to be able to carry the luggage, the benches, and on the second trip me and the wheelchair. The next day, he had to go to work…
You must be wondering what “benches” I am talking about; well there are transfer benches that are specially manufactured for bathroom use for disabled people. Since I cannot walk at all, not even stand, I have to use these benches to take a shower and do other things you do in the bathroom. And in case you are wondering why I cannot walk, the really short version of the story is I had polio when I was a seven month old baby so since then, when I was starting to give my first steps, I have not been able to walk. I lived all my life on a wheelchair and that’s the story.
We moved into a motel in NY, in Westchester County. This was only one room with a microwave. No kitchen, no mini living room or mini dining room. This meant we could not cook; the microwave was only to heat things really. Without having dishes or other kitchen utensils or a table, there was not much we could do, so we had to eat out or order food. But what can you actually order? There are only two things they deliver, Chinese food or pizza (and I would not have pizza regularly…).
Once a week we would visit Vic’s brother and his cook would give us a nice dinner and we were allowed to use his washing machine and dryer to do our laundry. He was very generous with us and tried to help us as much as he could. Some other night we would visit Vic’s mom and we would cook there and the three of us shared a meal together. It was nice. But most of the days it was just Vic and I on our normal routine.
Vic would go to work in the morning and I stayed behind adapting myself to the new environment again. By this I mean adapting to the different layout of the benches according to the dimensions of the bathroom. We had to consider the height of the bed in relation to my wheelchair that needed to be the same so I could transfer from one to the other on my own with a transfer board as a bridge between them. And also I needed to consider how soft the mattress was and how much I sank on it, since this would affect my ability to transfer to and from the chair. All these kind of things that you probably never noticed or even thought about, are things that I have to consider every time I move, travel, or even if I want to spend the night anywhere else other than my home.
At lunch time, Vic would bring some food, have lunch with me and get back to the office. The only thing I could do in the room was watching TV, or reading or praying so I would do that until he came back after work. Then we either went out to eat or order Chinese food. Meanwhile, we were still looking for an apartment during the evenings or weekends Some times, we went to see an apartment at lunch racing against time so Vic could go back to work and he would take me to his office and I would stay at the employee’s cafeteria for the rest of the afternoon until he finished working.
Waiting there was fun, every so often, Vic would come down and introduce me to a co-worker, I could have snacks from the vending machines if I wanted to and I would pass my time writing letters to my friends on my laptop. Since this was a big building with lots of employees, the cafeteria was very big so I was not intruding on anybody. Sometimes, Vic would hide me in the conference room upstairs when nobody was using it. I was not supposed to be there to avoid liability for them in case of an accident. There I could make phone calls to Lima, Peru for free… This happened to be a Telecom company and making phone calls overseas was not unusual for them, since they owned the lines, it didn’t cost them anything and the employees were allowed to call, so Vic’s boss knew I was using the phone. I got to talk with my friends and family in Lima for a long time while waiting. It was a lot of fun!
Going to Vic’s office worked out very well and I was not in our room all the time! After work, we would go to the White Plains Mall and have dinner in the food court. This Mall is the scenario for my next adventure!
We will continue the story on my next post. Please leave your comments at the end of my posts; I would love to hear from you! Hasta la vista!
After a week or so, it was time to move on to some more affordable place so on a week night, after we finished packing at 2 o’clock in the morning, we moved out of the apartment-hotel. Vic had to make 2 trips in the rain just to be able to carry the luggage, the benches, and on the second trip me and the wheelchair. The next day, he had to go to work…
You must be wondering what “benches” I am talking about; well there are transfer benches that are specially manufactured for bathroom use for disabled people. Since I cannot walk at all, not even stand, I have to use these benches to take a shower and do other things you do in the bathroom. And in case you are wondering why I cannot walk, the really short version of the story is I had polio when I was a seven month old baby so since then, when I was starting to give my first steps, I have not been able to walk. I lived all my life on a wheelchair and that’s the story.
We moved into a motel in NY, in Westchester County. This was only one room with a microwave. No kitchen, no mini living room or mini dining room. This meant we could not cook; the microwave was only to heat things really. Without having dishes or other kitchen utensils or a table, there was not much we could do, so we had to eat out or order food. But what can you actually order? There are only two things they deliver, Chinese food or pizza (and I would not have pizza regularly…).
Once a week we would visit Vic’s brother and his cook would give us a nice dinner and we were allowed to use his washing machine and dryer to do our laundry. He was very generous with us and tried to help us as much as he could. Some other night we would visit Vic’s mom and we would cook there and the three of us shared a meal together. It was nice. But most of the days it was just Vic and I on our normal routine.
Vic would go to work in the morning and I stayed behind adapting myself to the new environment again. By this I mean adapting to the different layout of the benches according to the dimensions of the bathroom. We had to consider the height of the bed in relation to my wheelchair that needed to be the same so I could transfer from one to the other on my own with a transfer board as a bridge between them. And also I needed to consider how soft the mattress was and how much I sank on it, since this would affect my ability to transfer to and from the chair. All these kind of things that you probably never noticed or even thought about, are things that I have to consider every time I move, travel, or even if I want to spend the night anywhere else other than my home.
At lunch time, Vic would bring some food, have lunch with me and get back to the office. The only thing I could do in the room was watching TV, or reading or praying so I would do that until he came back after work. Then we either went out to eat or order Chinese food. Meanwhile, we were still looking for an apartment during the evenings or weekends Some times, we went to see an apartment at lunch racing against time so Vic could go back to work and he would take me to his office and I would stay at the employee’s cafeteria for the rest of the afternoon until he finished working.
Waiting there was fun, every so often, Vic would come down and introduce me to a co-worker, I could have snacks from the vending machines if I wanted to and I would pass my time writing letters to my friends on my laptop. Since this was a big building with lots of employees, the cafeteria was very big so I was not intruding on anybody. Sometimes, Vic would hide me in the conference room upstairs when nobody was using it. I was not supposed to be there to avoid liability for them in case of an accident. There I could make phone calls to Lima, Peru for free… This happened to be a Telecom company and making phone calls overseas was not unusual for them, since they owned the lines, it didn’t cost them anything and the employees were allowed to call, so Vic’s boss knew I was using the phone. I got to talk with my friends and family in Lima for a long time while waiting. It was a lot of fun!
Going to Vic’s office worked out very well and I was not in our room all the time! After work, we would go to the White Plains Mall and have dinner in the food court. This Mall is the scenario for my next adventure!
We will continue the story on my next post. Please leave your comments at the end of my posts; I would love to hear from you! Hasta la vista!
May 4, 2010
Twelve and Counting
It seems like it was yesterday. I got off the plane on a cold morning in February, 12 years ago. February is the hottest month of the summer in Peru, at least in Lima, where I was born. It seemed so surreal to feel cold then at the airport in New Jersey and later that evening in my husband's mini car that made me feel like I was inside the freezer! It was -5 degrees Celsius! I had never experienced that kind of cold in my life! And as I was sitting there in the car, feeling the cold right to my bones and shivering, I wondered in what kind of trouble I had gotten myself into and if I was going to be able to endure this kind of weather for the long run…
Here I was, newlywed, arriving to a new Country to start a new life. Leaving behind family and friends; my Church, my work (which were the same since I was an Associate Pastor there), failures and accomplishments...many memories. New language, new customs, new culture… It was a lot to take at the same time. But God was with me. I just reminded myself “He is with me”, talked to Him a little, and everything was all right again.
As soon as we were in the airport after my immigration papers were in order and they asked me what was the official name I wanted to use in the USA I replied “Alicia Gentile”; we left. My mom, who traveled with me, went with my brother and his wife home and I went home with my husband Vic. Home for us at this early stage of our marriage was an apartment hotel in Connecticut, almost 2 hours away from the airport! This trip showed me how big the distances are here and how I would dread these long car drives that I was not used to make. Back in Lima, I used to live in a suburb called Miraflores, and I also worked there and did everything else there, so the largest time I normally was in a car was 20 minutes at the most. And in the summer, if I wanted to get to my favorite beach, it was just a 40 minutes drive. So at least for the first 6 months living in the US, it felt like live was passing me by while in the car, the drives seemed that long.
The mini apartment was very comfortable, full equipped and I could even cook in the little kitchen that we had. Vic had to go to work, so I stayed there getting used to my new environment though we didn’t stay there for long, one week if I remember correctly. We were there only because the apartment that Vic was going to rent for us was taken by someone else at the last minute before he traveled to Lima to marry me, even though he had a deal already. Now, finding an apartment that is accessible for a wheelchair is not an easy task anywhere, but in New York’s suburbs, where Vic worked, it was really tough! The reason why is because most of the constructions are old and not up to date with new regulations that facilitates access to a wheelchair. The interesting thing was that there were several apartments listed as wheelchair accessible, and they were, all the rooms and doorways except for one, which one do you think? The bathroom! What were these people thinking? In some of them Vic would walk in the apartment they were showing him and pass the realtor by on his way to the bathroom just to measure the doorway because if that was not right, it was the big “show stopper” no matter how beautiful and roomy the rest of the apartment was, it was no good for us.
That is how we got to this apartment hotel.
The story will continue on my next blog.
Here I was, newlywed, arriving to a new Country to start a new life. Leaving behind family and friends; my Church, my work (which were the same since I was an Associate Pastor there), failures and accomplishments...many memories. New language, new customs, new culture… It was a lot to take at the same time. But God was with me. I just reminded myself “He is with me”, talked to Him a little, and everything was all right again.
As soon as we were in the airport after my immigration papers were in order and they asked me what was the official name I wanted to use in the USA I replied “Alicia Gentile”; we left. My mom, who traveled with me, went with my brother and his wife home and I went home with my husband Vic. Home for us at this early stage of our marriage was an apartment hotel in Connecticut, almost 2 hours away from the airport! This trip showed me how big the distances are here and how I would dread these long car drives that I was not used to make. Back in Lima, I used to live in a suburb called Miraflores, and I also worked there and did everything else there, so the largest time I normally was in a car was 20 minutes at the most. And in the summer, if I wanted to get to my favorite beach, it was just a 40 minutes drive. So at least for the first 6 months living in the US, it felt like live was passing me by while in the car, the drives seemed that long.
The mini apartment was very comfortable, full equipped and I could even cook in the little kitchen that we had. Vic had to go to work, so I stayed there getting used to my new environment though we didn’t stay there for long, one week if I remember correctly. We were there only because the apartment that Vic was going to rent for us was taken by someone else at the last minute before he traveled to Lima to marry me, even though he had a deal already. Now, finding an apartment that is accessible for a wheelchair is not an easy task anywhere, but in New York’s suburbs, where Vic worked, it was really tough! The reason why is because most of the constructions are old and not up to date with new regulations that facilitates access to a wheelchair. The interesting thing was that there were several apartments listed as wheelchair accessible, and they were, all the rooms and doorways except for one, which one do you think? The bathroom! What were these people thinking? In some of them Vic would walk in the apartment they were showing him and pass the realtor by on his way to the bathroom just to measure the doorway because if that was not right, it was the big “show stopper” no matter how beautiful and roomy the rest of the apartment was, it was no good for us.
That is how we got to this apartment hotel.
The story will continue on my next blog.
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