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<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><u><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"">As<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">
</span>an 83 year old person who<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>is
losing more of his vision and hearing yearly,, </span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><u><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"">I certainly<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>identify<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">
</span>with the difference between accepting help<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><u><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"">and the younger me that resisted it.
</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><u><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"">What do you do when help is not
wanted but foisted on you? </span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><u><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"">The piece is well written and I have
nothing to<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>recommend about that. </span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"">DeAnna sub for March 23, 2023</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"">910 words</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><a name="_Hlk67331980"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"">At
your Service</span></a><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"">By DeAnna Quietwater Noriega</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"">When I was a college student, my best
friend Annie and I took a bus to San Francisco to Christmas shop. We decided to
take a lunch break at a cafeteria style venue. Annie scanned the restaurant for
an empty table. She directed me to one near the buffet line. I settled my guide
dog beneath it, clipped her leash to one of its legs and placed my bags between
her front paws. We hurried to fill our trays, observed by a busboy clearing
dirty dishes. When we had made our selections and were trying to decide how to
carry two trays back to our seats; the bus boy stepped up and bowed, offered me
an elbow, “At your service Miss,” he quipped. Scooping up my tray, he escorted
me back to my seat with a smile.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"">Throughout my life journey, I have
met many wonderful strangers who seem to take real enjoyment in offering me
assistance. Yesterday, I was in Jefferson City helping with the Missouri
Council of the Blind present their views on two pending pieces of legislation.
I had been assigned my own state senator and seven members of the Missouri
representatives on the house side. I helped my roommate, a woman five years
older than I, get up and dress and attend the breakfast before going over to
the state capital building. She was given two state senators and five members
of the house to visit. She hadn’t made any appointments. I noticed that her
house members were in offices with room numbers followed by letter
designations. Since these indicated to me that these might be up narrow steep
metal staircases to mezzanines built in large high-ceilinged rooms, I offered
her a trade for some of my list to reduce her list to five visits and adding
two more to my list. She agreed, but when she was ready to leave, she changed
her mind and asked if I could do them all. She felt unwell. After I arranged a
late check-out, I was trying to touch type the address of my hotel into the
proper field in my phone to summon an Uber car. An acquaintance’s husband
recognized me and asked what I was doing. When he heard, I was trying to setup
a ride to the capital, he offered to take me and my dog with the two blind
people he was driving there. Robert had never been part of a legislative day.
Since he needed to find a place on the street to park his extended cab pickup
truck. He dropped me in what he thought was the back entrance where I could
have taken an elevator to the offices level. I took the elevator to the third
floor to begin looking for offices, only to find myself still in a parking
garage, not the capital building. I heard a car looking for a parking spot and
followed it. When the young man driving the car stopped and rolled down a
window, I explained I was lost. He took me to another elevator and we crossed
the street where I met up with My friend Robert and his party and were given
directions to a public access entrance. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"">We got separated when we got tangled
up in a large gathering of children’s advocates holding a rally in the rotunda.
A woman admired my dog and asked if I wanted a seat, but when she understood I
needed to locate an exit into a main hall, she led me to one and even figured
which direction I needed to go to reach my first appointment. There I met a
legislative assistant who used to work for my house representative. She told me
he was planning to run for the senate next fall and insisted on walking with us
to my second appointment. Each subsequent office had someone willing to guide
me to the next. I only got to talk with two legislators because the senate had
done an all-night session and had only broken at seven in the morning. They had
all left to get some sleep. Both house members were supportive of my positions.
I managed to finish dropping off material in all 15 of the legislator’s offices
on our combined lists by 11:30. At the last office, I asked the legislative
assistant if she could direct me to the elevator that would take me to the
basement level so I could walk out to the street through the parking garage I
had originally meant to walk through under the capital. She said she really
couldn’t because she was directionally challenged and her directions were
likely to get me lost. Instead, she walked with me, waited for the elevator and
escorted Flynn and I through the garage. She met a friend and stopped to talk
to him when I ran into Robert and his party who were going to take a lunchbreak
at a nearby restaurant. They offered to give me a lift back to the hotel. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"">When I was young, I hated having
people assume that that sweet little blind girl needed someone to take care of
her. Now that I am transformed into that sweet little blind grandma, I am grateful
when generous minded people go out of their way to offer help. As for Karen,
the directionally challenged legislative assistant, she remembered me from
previous visits to the capital to meet with my senator. </span></p>
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<br><br><br><p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Leonard I. Tuchyner, Author</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.dldbooks.com/tuchyner/">https://www.dldbooks.com/tuchyner/</a><br data-mce-bogus="1"></p>
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