When Colleen Stice, a hardworking mom from Tulsa, OK, recently took her 4-year-old son Rowan to Target, she parked in a handicapped spot.
Upon leaving the store, Colleen saw a note from a complete stranger left on her windshield.
The note read: “We watched you pull into handicap spot and get out carrying a toddler. You have no right to park in a handicap! It is for handicap people! Shame on you!”
But just because the judgmental stranger didn’t think Colleen looked like she needed that handicapped spot, that didn’t mean her handicapped placard wasn’t placed on her car’s rearview mirror.
Colleen was in tears when she read the note and angrily posted a public response on Facebook:
“Please allow me to tell you what you didn’t see. You didn’t see that Rowan, who turns 4 in two days can’t walk more than a few steps at a time. You didn’t see that he doesn’t understand that flailing, kicking, and trying to hurl himself backward makes it incredibly difficult, painful, and exhausting to carry him. You didn’t see that his wheelchair was at home because due to an accident he’d had, the cushion had to be removed and washed at home. You didn’t see that I had already carried him through two stores that didn’t have carts. You didn’t see that the closest spot available that wasn’t handicapped was so far out that I almost talked myself out of getting the last of Rowan’s Christmas presents just so I didn’t have to carry him that far, or use a handicapped spot.”
Colleen offered advice for anyone rude enough to shame a stranger about the disabilities he or she may or may not have. “You don’t know me, and you don’t know the next person you see parking in a handicapped spot. Don’t shame them. They probably don’t deserve it. Just be kind.”
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