Dear Sir, - I was interested to read a letter from "Student" in "London Life" recently on pains in amputated limbs. I am minus my left leg since I was a girl of about ten, but can still feel the toes of my missing foot sometimes, and pains in them. Another symptom I and other amputees suffer from is a violent jumping of the stump, especially in bed at night. All this symptoms arise from the severed nerves, my doctor tells me.
I have read with much interest Wallace Stort's stories of one-legged and armless girls, and was also interested to read in the "Daily mirror" of December 24, 1938, an interview with a legless girl of 18 who gets about with ease on her hands. It is wonderful what one can get used to, and after twelve years on one leg, I am quite reconciled to it and can get about as easily and quickly as my normal friends. After all, one leg only is a very different proposition to no legs at all and, and like many of your other cripple girl correspondents, I confess to a liking for the interest and sympathy my single leg arouses. If I had both my legs I should be only one of the crowd; but now, when I hop along on a smart pair of crutches and pretty shoe, I attract attention everywhere and, womanlike, I enjoy it. Two other girls in this town go about with artificial legs, but I don't envy them. One of them is now married and so is another girl who walks with a single crutch and pushes her pram with two lovely children. So you see we cripples also get husbands. I, too, have found that many men are attracted to limbless girls, and although I am not yet married, it is only because the right man has not yet come along.
I always dress as smartly as I can afford to, and love nice frocks and pretty high-heeled shoes. I now get single shoes made for me instead of buying a pair. My skirts I have made rather narrow and tight, as the empty left side blows about in windy weather, besides which it looks smarter with a single leg.
On Sundays, when the weather is nice, I often get taken out in a boy friend's car, generally going to a nice hotel for lunch, and I must confess to a thrill when I hop out of the car and, putting my crutches under my arms, I swing along into a perhaps crowded dining room amidst the curious and sympathetic stares of the other people.
During the recent severe weather it has been dangerous for one-legged people. Like some of your other girl correspondents, I can hop for some distance without crutches, and with a low-heeled shoe I get about the house quite easily, and can even drag myself upstairs on my hands; but it soon gets very tiring, and one is glad of a friendly crutch again.
I do hope that this letter is not too long and that other one-legged girls will write again and not leave your excellent paper entirely to wrestler and long-hair fans.
Yours truly
Single Shoe