Dear Sir, - At last one of your one-legged readers has written again. I refer to "One-legged Wife's" very interesting letter in your September double number. It really was good to read of someone who has so much in common with me.
I am only 21 years of age, and it is just a year and a half now that my right leg was amputated about 3 inches below the hip, as a result of a street accident. just like "One-legged Wife," I am told that I am pretty and have an excellent figure, judging from the modern athletic standpoint.
After my limb had been amputated I took to crutches, and now manage quite well with the support of only one crutch.
With the passing of time the keen edge of regret at the loss of my right leg has become considerably dulled. Nevertheless, there are times, and I am sure that every one-legged girl will agree with me, when one hankers after that lost limb.
As a sportswoman, I perhaps feel it much more. I can only participate as a spectator in my favourite sport, hockey, at which I gained representative honours. Tennis, dancing and hiking are all impossible to me now. The whole course of my life will have to be changed, and it is only now that I am beginning to realise it. I shall have to find new hobbies, pastimes and interests.
Since becoming a regular reader of "London Life" I have felt an increasing interest in high heels. whether I myself will ever be able to wear a really high heel is a matter open to considerable doubt. I have a slender, nicely shaped leg, and content myself with wearing the finest of silk stockings.
At present I am staying with an aunt who, up to my coming of age, was my guardian. The good old lady, thinking perhaps that it would be for my own benefit, is continually urging me to have an artificial limb. I wonder whether "One-legged Wife" could inform me, through the columns of "London Life," whether it would be worth while in my particular case to fit an artificial limb. Has she tried the experiment and found it a failure? I wonder!
I am so much at home with my crutch that I am not at all looking forward to the fitting of an artificial leg.
I would greatly appreciate any advice that "One-legged Wife" is able to give me.
Yours truly,
L. N.
Capetown, S. A.