Mom of disabled child finds nasty note on her car at Disney parking lot
Mother of child with epilepsy wants to spread understanding and tolerance of those with disabilities
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Your support makes all the difference.A Florida mother with a disabled child says she found a rude note on her car at Walt Disney World.
Tricia Proefrock and her 13 year-old son Mason visited the Magic Kingdom last week, a favourite place of theirs, from their home in Palm Beach Gardens.
“It’s the highlight of both of our lives,” she told Fox 35.
Ms Proefrock explained that Mason has Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome, a variation of epilepsy that can impair an individual’s mobility, sight and speech. Due to this, Mason is a wheelchair user and usually they park their car in the allocated handicapped car parking spaces. However, on this occasion, all the handicapped parking spots were taken.
The Walt Disney World’s website states that to use disability parking lots, guests must have a badge, but she had been given permission to park like she opted to.
When they got back to the car following their time in the park, they discovered a note disguised as parking ticket from a “kind soul”.
It read, “This is not a ticket, but if it were in my power, you would receive two. Because of your bull-headed, inconsiderate, feeble attempt at parking, you have taken enough room for a 20 mule team, 2 elephants, 1 goat and a safari of pygmies from the African interior.”
The note continued, “The reason for giving you this is so that in the future you may think of someone else other than yourself. Besides I don’t like domineering, egotistical or simple-minded drivers and you probably fit into one of those categories.”
Ms Proefrock told The Independent that she was disappointed with the alternative parking spots given by Disney because it “feels wrong and sets us up to be sitting ducks for everyone’s judgement”.
She also outlined that she had no desire to find out who wrote the note as her main priority was Disney’s parking options.
“I see it was an attempt at humour, yet it’s also a passive-aggressive form of harassment to a stranger who was just following instructions and doing what’s safest for my child,” she told The Independent.
She said to Fox 35 that members of staff had told her to park in two spots as it “gives me room to wheel my son out of the vehicle”.
The note concluded by wishing the drive of the vehicle “transmission failure” in rush hour traffic and “the Fleas of a thousand camels to infest your armpits”.
Ms Proefrock said she was speaking out because she wanted to promote understanding and tolerance.
“So, if you see a car taking two spots, maybe instead of wishing us a broken transmission, you can try to think about WHY a wheelchair accessible van in a medical parking section might need 2 spots,” she told Fox 35.
She told Insider that when she initially got the message, she felt “humiliation” and “shame” and that she always first looks "for open ramp spots and end spots, before taking two spots".
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