Dear Sir, - I have heard it stated on numerous occasions that one-legged people are usually miserable and ashamed to meet others. During the last ten years I have known numerous cripples, and have invariably found them content with their lot.
One girl in particular, whom I will call Nora, was entirely without legs. She was just 20 when I was introduced to her, and has lost both legs midway 'twixt knee and hip, at the age of 16. She was with a party of friends at the time, picnicking at a little-frequented beach in North Wales.
The whole party (all young people) were wearing swim suits. As I was introduced to everyone at the same time I didn't notice Nora's condition at first, as she was sitting behind the others. When I did so, my heart missed a beat, then went ahead like a steam-hammer. For she wore a tiny two-piece suit composed of white wool brassiere and almost negligible trunks of the same material and colour.
She was a lovely brunette, possessed of a perfect figure.
Quite unembarrassed at the advent of a stranger, she patted a flat rock beside her as she said laughingly:
"Come and sit by me; if the others want you as well, they must move - for you see I can't walk."
She was surprisingly frank about herself, and before we had been talking ten minutes, she said causally, "You rather admire my crippled condition, don't you?"
Of course I was taken aback, and murmured rather incoherently to cover my embarrassment.
This amazing girl just laughed, and flung herself flat on the back, clasping her hand under her curly bobbed hair, she lifted each shortened limb in turn, eyeing them critically.
" Yes, I suppose, they are a trifle interesting," she murmured softly.
Suddenly she laughed, a rather shaky laugh that sounded to me not far off tears, before saying, "I've often wondered why Fate chose to rob me of my legs just when I was beginning to enjoy life!" Then, as if glad of someone to talk to, she told me she had contracted blood-poisoning in both feet through treading on broken glass while bathing in the sea.
First both of her tiny feet had been amputated, and just when she had started to walk on artificial feet she had been obliged to have her legs off.
After tea the others danced. Nora volunteered to attend to the portable gramophone, saying, "I may as well earn my keep somehow," adding to me,' "even a cripple girl can be useful."
"Can you get about unaided?" I asked.
"Not on shingle, but I can in the house or on soft surfaces. You see," she continued, "I use miniature crutches. My legs are too short for wooden legs."
Shortly after, we all went for a last dip, and Nora surprised me by dragging her lovely body on tiny black crutches to within a few yards of the sea, where she discarded them and swung herself into the water on her hands, were she splashed in the shallows.
Before she was carried to the car by her friends we had exchanged addresses, and she had promised to let me take her out the next day. I did so; but my adventures, if you care to call them so, with this charming girl, will have to be recounted in the future.
Yours truly,
Lawless