Not Always a Valley of Tears by Pascuala Herrera

Author:Pascuala Herrera [Herrera, Pascuala]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781736338810
Publisher: Pascuala Herrera
Published: 2021-02-19T11:19:41+00:00

CHAPTER 15

After a few disappointing relationships, I committed myself to working hard at Harper, being active with Life Directions, and continuing my involvement with DARE. I even started to take leadership roles in both Life Directions and DARE. In Life Directions, I cofacilitated the Life Search weekend retreats with Father John. For DARE, I became one of Doug’s assistants. I learned how to finger spell, so I would spell out words into his hands to let him know what was happening. This gave his wife a break from having to travel with him.

During each flight, I would sit next to Doug and describe the surroundings and inform him of any announcements. I will never forget a conversation I had with him on the flight to Las Vegas. He said, “Pascuala, do you know that, with my disability, it is like living in a closet?” I asked, “How?” He responded in a serious tone, “It’s like living in a closet where only one person at a time can enter and not every person can enter.” I didn’t interrupt and had him continue. He then said, “I live in a soundless dark closet where only one person who can sign or finger spell can enter.” I appreciated his analogy because it provided me with a deeper appreciation for all that I could do and realized that, although my life had been difficult at times, I was so fortunate in so many ways. Perhaps for Doug, life had more valleys of tears than my own.

Las Vegas was a city I’d always wanted to visit. Besides participating in the social justice activities, I was hoping to try my luck with some of the slots. It excited me that the plan was to block the strip and interrupt gamblers from playing until our demands for equality were heard. Again, there were hundreds of people in wheelchairs along with personal care assistants and allies. It was early October, so the weather was a bit chilly. I wore my bright colored windbreaker and had a blanket in my backpack in case I needed it. For this trip, my sister Tere’s daughter Velia had traveled with me. Because I used a manual chair, she would help to push, especially inside hotels when plush carpets made it very difficult for me. We were instructed to go as far out on the streets as possible and block the two main streets on the strip. We moved quickly and then chained ourselves together so that police officers wouldn’t be able to easily move us. The usual chant began, “Together united, we’ll never be defeated.” We grabbed signs and continued our chanting. Some of the leaders used a bullhorn to incite us into a roar.

During a lull, a young Latino man cleared his throat and said to me, “Are you going to get arrested?” I smiled and said, “No. I want to gamble.” He smiled in return and then said, “Would you mind if I gambled with you?” I thought to myself, Wow, these are original pickup lines.

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