Here are some more strong letters in defense of our challenging White Mountain trails: Dear Mary Altz-Smith, My friends and I frequently hike in the White Mountains during the summer. Today, we hiked Indian Head on June 20 with my summer hiking group, Girls of Summer. We are a strong group of girls who… Continue reading “Dear Mary from Birmingham” Letters: Batch 3
I took my little girl to see Annie the Musical last night at Jean’s Playhouse in Lincoln, NH. Actually, my parents took us; the theater was jam packed, and we were wowed by everything: Annie and the orphans, Sandy, (played by the beloved pet of our local second grade teacher and his wife), Ms. Hannigan,… Continue reading Remembering Why We Love Orphan Annie and her Sunshine
A continued conversation of our response letters from Girls of Summer: Dear Mrs. Mary Altz-Smith, The letter that the you wrote to The Union Leader was very disappointing. You obviously have never been in the in the real outdoors of New Hampshire. Have you ever been on an actual hike before coming to our challenging… Continue reading “Dear Mary from Birmingham” Letters: Batch 2
For the record, for all of you judging the safety represented in this photo, this Boston Whaler containing my family is within the legal weight limit, and our son, in the green sweatshirt, is wearing his lifejacket beneath his sweatshirt. We are away on vacation visiting my brother and his family on Martha’s Vineyard, and… Continue reading When Making Family Memories Takes Years Off Our Lives in Only the BEST Ways…
When having a conversation with anyone– with or without a spinal cord injury– we garner information about their attitude, sense of grit, and/or capacity for resiliency within a few minutes. I’ve become slightly obsessed with this concept of GRIT reading many articles over the past few years identifying grit as one of the qualifying characteristics… Continue reading July 27 Christopher and Dana Reeve Blog: Grit, Resiliency , and Resolve
Just 24 hours ago, many of us who were spending the night anywhere in a tent in Northern New Hampshire were cursing the weather people along with Mother Nature herself. The rain was supposed to end. Cooler than normal temps meant 50 degrees but not 40. These girls pictured above not only hiked for 5… Continue reading “Dear Mary from Birmingham” Letters: Batch 1
One of my favorite American novels is The Things We Carried by Tim O’Brien. In the first chapter, he writes about what they carry in their packs. Today, while hiking we teased one young lady for packing an entire jumbo box of goldfish in her pack along with a pudding cup, not her best choice… Continue reading The Weight We Carry
Independence for those of us living a wheelchair lifestyle means different things for different people. For my husband, Geoff, independence is creativity paired with accessibility. We live in a beautiful place where so much is accessible to our family, a place where adaptive programs like Eastern Adaptive Sports and New England Disabled Sports and Adaptive… Continue reading Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation Blog for July 13, 2017: a Different Kind of Independence
Dear Matt, We are going to call you Matt because I currently do not have a ninth grade student named Matt; therefore, I can protect the innocent. These words in your end of year reflective essay have stayed with me for days, even weeks now. I wrote them here for this photo, and you should… Continue reading For a Broken Hearted Ninth Grade Boy
The above car is my dad’s, and he’s having a hard time letting go of her, despite not really driving this former beauty since I was a teenager. Now this rusty impersonator of a bygone era goes into storage at Arnold’s Antiques and Collectibles around November and comes out again in April. Coincidentally this… Continue reading Our Power to Attach and Release
Heather Ehrman Krill: The "Write" Kind of Coach 