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Christine P - Book intro WoW
Intro … Angel on my shoulder
YES I CAN …
... with the help of that angel on my shoulder
I was convinced from childhood that I ‘couldn’t do’ many physical activities. So I didn’t try.
My well-meaning Mum was a tad overprotective but she had cause: I was born with the genetic Charcot Marie Tooth syndrome, a hereditary neuro-muscular disease passed along by my Dad. It affects the nerve linings in feet, legs, hands and arms – and most muscles. At school and indeed into adulthood, I was useless at sports, lost my balance frequently, and fell over all too easily. One of my most nightmarish memories is of my first day at school. It was postwar England and each morning all the pupils had to file into the hall for Assembly: a prayer, a hymn, and news from the headmistress, an amply corseted woman with steel grey curls and a booming voice which brooked no nonsense. She called me up on stage, and I struggled up the three steps to stand by her side.
“This is Christine Rayner who is starting with our school today. We must look after her, because she falls down very easily.” Oh, please, NO! Recess (or ‘playtime’ as it was then known) was a nightmare from then until I left, a year later, to be home-schooled. I would try desperately to be ‘kept in’ doing lines or any punishment my sympathetic teacher thought fit to impose, to avoid the inevitable poking and pushing to watch me fall down. Very easily.
Until my early 40s I took for granted that I’d never do the exciting things other people did.
I was wrong. My career as a travel writer showed me YES, I CAN.
The following pages recount just a few of the adventures I enjoyed, sometimes with hilarious results, such as hot-air ballooning in Africa, swimming with beluga whales in Hudson’s Bay, and zip lining in Costa Rica, among other exploits.
Now, in my ninth decade, travel is no longer an option. But these memories fill me with a sense of wonder and adventure and with thanks to that celestial being keeping her eye on me, and for helping me overcome my fears.
Christine Potter
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