Hollowwood
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- Oct 14, 2011
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When my wife played Alice in Wonderland and fell thru the top landing of an outside set of stairs, we were on our way to learning first hand how it is to travel disabled. I did a cross country trip to Seattle, Washington, to pick her up. Our trip back had her in a back brace and using a walker and wheel chair. I have to say that from that 6 day drive back, we learned that Handicaped Accessable means differant things to differant people and also to differant Motels. Narrow ramps in a few and direct access from a private door in others. Where most messed up was in the rooms. Those big beds were not intended for small rooms. It left tight space for a walker to get next to the bed to get in. Forget trying it with the wheel chair. Plus, the bed was so high that I had to help her so she did not slide back. In one case I had no choice but to move the bed 6". Now this are in rooms supposedly designed for wheel chairs! The bathrooms also varied in how they functioned. In some, we could not use the chair unless we backed in. A differant choice of furnishing would have solved most of the problems with the bed. The reason for this topic is that with our aging population, are you planning for it? And how? Use of walkers may be on the rise. Can you adapt? Older homes that are now B&Bs may have a hard time doing so. If we choose to build to suit, this will be part of the design. If we go as is on a home, we will have to make do. Any thoughts on this? Have you run into this problem? My wife just chipped in saying, "Add a plushy recliner!" Someone with back pain can sleep in one better than a bed. She still has some nights where she spends part of the night in hers. I had to buy her one so I could get mine back!!! Art/Kat