Dear Sir, - I was pleased to read in a recent publication that some men feel specially chivalrous to crippled girls, but trust that I will be forgiven when I say that I don't agree with this view entirely.
Agreeing that the protective instinct of the male is much extended to we girls who have lost one of our limbs, and being glad of this, at the same time I feel it would be an impossibility to be "proud of my affliction," as the writer advises.
One thing the loss of my leg has taught me, and that is this: When Dame nature robs us of our limbs or faculties, she always gives us something to make up for it. In my case, I was in despair after my accident. Up till then I had been an extremely shy and reserved girl, with an inferiority complex. After my accident, some feeling of self-confidence and power in myself came to me. I knew that the fate which had decreed my injury would also decree that I would be given he necessary mental and physical stamina to overcome in some in measure. I have talked to many cripples in my time, and each one tells me the same thing that the very fact of being crippled makes them feel "set apart" from the rest of humanity. The cripple has a mental and moral stamina that many people in possession of an erect body and sturdy limbs lack.
I don't mean by this that we are to be envied. Far from it. I am merely trying to point out that our life does not become a vale of tears because we have something in us that tends us to steel us against adversity and trouble. When I first knew that I should go through life one-legged, I was in despair. Then I thought of all the wonderful works that had been carried out by cripples. Wonderful books that had been written, paintings done by armless men that obtained the admiration of the world despite the fact that the paint-brush had to be held in the mouth.
I thought of the intricate work done by the blind. The discoveries made by men thrown on a "human junk heap" after the War. And this helped me to carry on.
I can't say I am proud of my affliction, but I am proud to have that inner core of steel, in common with other cripples, which forbids me to despair. I have faith in myself, and in my destiny. When I see people quite helpless in bath-chairs, or in the complete darkness of utter blindness, I feel that my own affliction is nothing. At the same time, I take a pride in my appearance, because I think it is up to we cripples to make ourselves as attractive as possible in order that we claim our place in the sun.
The man who wrote the articles asks if cripples are shy with men. No, I am not. I know that any man will help me in my affliction, many strangers go quite out of their way to assist me on and off omnibuses. Not because they find my one-leggedness attractive, but because the very fact of being crippled brings out the best in humanity; and, despite what the cynics say, the majority of people would rather help than injure another.
Yours truly,
Dawn.