My Sonny day

All I could think was, “Oh my God! I’m so low to the ground!”

My wheelchair was nowhere in sight, but this was exactly where I had wanted to be for nearly three years.

I finally was riding shotgun in Dan’s Buick Verano.

Its shiny brown-metallic exterior had mocked me since he bought the car in early 2016. I saw it parked in the driveway every day. I even had pulled up next to it and asked Dan to open the front door so I could inhale its intoxicating new car smell.

But because of my Multiple Sclerosis and having to use a wheelchair, I never was able to go for a ride in the car he named “Sonny” in homage to a character in the Bruce Springsteen song “Racing in the Streets.”

Dan inspired by Springsteen? Of course 😉

Sonny isn’t handicapped accessible. Someone would need to help me stand, pivot and lower into the squishy front seat, which sits about six inches closer to the ground than my wheelchair. This kind of carefully choreographed transfer would require two able-bodied caregivers and perfect weather conditions that were free of excessive wind and any sort of precipitation.

See why I hadn’t ridden in Dan’s car?

Lucky for me, everything aligned perfectly on Tuesday, June 26, 2018.

Dan was at home and had finished all of his writing assignments. My caregiver Marcus and I had returned from my MOVE! exercise class, and I was feeling strong. Apparently Dan was too because he met me in the driveway. He looked at his car, and then looked at me with a smile on his face.

He asked, “Wanna go for a ride?”

Quickly I looked at Marcus, looked back at Dan and said “Sure!”

It was like we had practiced the transfer into Sonny a million times. Within a matter of minutes, I was safely in the front seat, Marcus buckled me in, and away Dan and I went.

I was giddy!

Everything was so new to me. I was like a little kid pushing buttons to roll down windows and lock doors. The radio display impressed the heck out of me, and his back-up camera freaked me out–It was technology I hadn’t seen before.

It’s not like Dan and I have never ridden in a vehicle together. We have gone tens of thousands of miles in our accessible van, but I never transfer into it. I drive in and always sit in my wheelchair.

I waved to our neighbor Barb as we drove past her house, and I wondered, “Can she even see me or know who I am because I’m sitting so low and not in my wheelchair?” That thought quickly left as Dan pulled out of the neighborhood and we were out on the open road. I was enjoying the moment.

It was just my baby and me.

We toured the town, rode on the expressway at more than 70 mph to a nearby village and took a two-lane county road back home. Man, does his car handle nice.

We pulled into our driveway, but our adventure wasn’t over. Marcus held down the fort while we were gone, so Dan said we all had to go out to Doozies for ice cream. What a good idea!

As I sat in the front seat of Sonny and enjoyed my Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Arctic Swirl, I savored the sweetness of the day and how it showed me that when the opportunity is there, I need to take advantage of it.

June 26, 2018, was on track to be an average day, and then a Sonny sort of opportunity came knocking on my door.

I answered and now know what it’s like to ride shotgun in the shiny brown-metallic car parked in the driveway every day.

It mocks me no more.