Comfort in Daddy’s Wheelchair

The boy was playing independently in the living room on the floor.  The news was on so I came up next to him; a story was on that interested me.

My son looked up at me didn’t really smile or anything.  He went back to playing but he kept one hand on my wheelchair as if he found comfort in my wheelchair.  Sometimes, he will do this when he is in his walker  – he will come up to me and sit there with one hand on my chair while he plays with something on his walker.  I don’t know if it is but I like to think he see’s my wheelchair as an extension of me.

I remember when he was 3 or 4 months old and he began to notice my wheelchair.  I began to cry because I didn’t know how to respond.  My wife comforted me in saying it wasn’t the wheelchair but the contrast of  the black he was noticing.