Stairs, ramps and the right Elevator.

First holiday concert in two years happened tonight. Benjamin and I were so thrilled to hear Cate and friends perform but the concert was in the brother school and thanks to Covid, we have only barely been in Cate's school....we certainly have had no cause to enter the brother school several blocks away.

We found the accessible entrance. I went ahead to scout it out before unloading Benjamin. This pandemic has made our entering new spaces extremely rare but my memory serves. I know access isn't a guarantee.

As I entered, I noticed a set of stairs in either direction. I could see a ramp but it was in the middle of a hallway with stairs on either end. I was confused. I asked a young student if he could direct me to the accessible entrance of the theater. Simultaneously, I actually realized an elevator was right inside the door but wasn't sure where it went. I asked if this could get me to the floor of the auditorium.

Young student eager to help began making his way to me: "Oh," he seemed a bit concerned. "Folklore around here is that the last time we had a student in a wheelchair, the students just carried him everywhere." 

I assumed that meant the elevator could in fact NOT get me to the auditorium. My head was starting to spin off my neck. I could feel it. I just decided to go get Benjamin and try the blasted elevator even though this guy was insinuating it wouldn't help me. But I was panicking a bit. I didn't have a plan B.

The elevator worked. The main entrance to the auditorium was located somewhere else entirely -- somewhere reachable by elevator.  We found our way. 

But as the choir began singing the first beautiful Christmas carol, I finally realized what the young man had said just as my head started to spin....

He seemed burdened with the lore of students carrying their classmate. And yet, he took a deep breath, looked over his shoulder at the handful of students sitting outside (what I now know to be) the stage entrance to the auditorium and said, "I guess we will have to do that."

Bless him.

And as the holidays rush towards us, and as we navigate a world still weighed down by a seemingly never-ending pandemic, I think that is a message we all need right now: I am here and willing to carry you if necessary. 

Or at the very least I can help you figure out if the blasted elevator can get you where you are going.