Something truly awesome happened yesterday evening. We had just got back from Asda, having done our weekly shop. We had ‘walked’ there and back, and lyn was still in her powerchair. It had been a nice little outing: shopping, and then a coffee. L is still getting used to handling her chair, so we had been together, Dominik with us; but yesterday, Lyn suddenly said she wanted a walk out on her own. That had never happened before: she has always needed someone to push her in her manual chair, and someone’s always been with her when she’s been out in her electric. Last night was a first. Of course we let her go; Dom and I stayed home. Truth be told, I was a bit nervous.

I need not have been: Lyn returned about half an hour later, safe and sound, having just been to a local park and back. Lyn is actually pretty competent driver. Yet, the special thing is, it was her first solo trip out I’ve ever known her to take. In fact, I asked her after she got home, and it was her first trip out by herself since 1992, when she was living in Cardiff. That struck me as pretty damn awesome: she’s only had it for two or three weeks, but her new chair is already changing her life: she seems more confident and independent. One can only imagine the sense of newfound freedom she must feel. I could tell from her eyes when she got home, that was just the first of many such trips – I better get used to it. As I joked with Lyn when she got back, now I know how she feels when I go out on one of my little jaunts.