Shopping Today

Today I went shopping with an elderly relative. It is not that I mind taking her shopping, in fact I quite enjoy it but it is the hard physical work of pushing a wheelchair around town. Firstly putting it in and out of the car is hard, the boot of my car means that I have to lift it up and over rather than just slide it in. Then unload at the other end. None of the shops are really very wheelchair friendly and usually I have to carry bulky or awkward goods with me.

Then we go for lunch, which is a nice break. Then back to the hard grind of pushing a wheelchair, up and down, in and out before loading it all back into the car and going to the supermarket.

This is when it gets really awful. Usually I have to find a wheelchair or unload it all again. Then use one of those bloody awful wheelchair trolleys that are not big enough, don't fit on the trolley properly and nearly dislocate your back trying to push it around the store. The wheels on the trolley work against the wheels on the wheelchairs, all the goods are either on the top or bottom shelves and nothing is easy. It is really hard to manoeuvre and almost impossible to push around without knocking something down, hitting something or worse, somebody. Then at the tills it is always in the way and difficult to fill because the bags always seem to take up lots more space than the original goods.

So I pack it all back into the car, drive back to hers, unload it all, drive home and collapse.

I am sitting here tonight thinking that I feel like someone has found a tap on the back of me, turned it on and released all the energy I ever had.

There has got to be an easier way.

Dix