Walk No More

About a month ago, I found this photo of Stross as it laid on a table covered by layers of photos at his high school. One of his former teachers, who had a penchant for capturing candid moments, took it in 2006. The moment it captured happened about one year before the teacher would learn he would die from a progressive degenerative neurological disease and about one year from us learning that the sight of Stross walking would exist only as a memory – or as an image on photo paper such as this one.

In late 2007, when a doctor advised Mark and me that it was no longer wise for Stross to walk, I cried. The doctor had delivered the news gently, and while he rightly understood we would not be surprised, he was also rightly aware that its significance was profound for us. Stross would no longer walk.

There was no need to clarify what the doctor had just shared. In fact, we had held nearly this same conversation a few times before, but on those occasions it seemed that Stross, or his body rather, had been able to keep going. Well, maybe Mark and I had wanted his body to keep going, and because we liked seeing Stross walk, Stross willed his body to do it for us.

But on this day we understood – as the doctor hoped we would – that this sight we loved to see could not happen anymore. We could no longer ask Stross to do what his body could not withstand. He was at a point of diminishing returns. If we insisted he keep trying to walk, he would be using all his physical, mental and emotional resources to break his body down rather than build it up.

The methodical four-point gait Stross learned in physical therapy made his muscles and joints do things they had arrived ill prepared to do. But it had been wonderous. Muscles and tendons capable of firing signals took over for ones that could not; malformed joints imitated well-formed ones; and underdeveloped bones bore his weight with the aid of braces capable of bearing the load. We had pushed past practical. Now, walking for Stross, while still possible, was no longer safe.

Stross would not walk again.

On the day Stross was born, we had been told he would never walk. Despite that, he had found a way to pull himself through space in an upright position. He had accomplished it with the aid of bracing devices and ambulation supports: first with a parapodium to learn what it felt like to bear weight and then with hip-knee-ankle orthotics and a reverse walker. The walker followed behind a three-year-old Stross as he pulled it or leaned against it when he tired of moving.

Once Stross began school, the forearm crutches were a challenge posed by a daring physical therapist. He believed they would boost Stross’ self-image. Mark and I had never worried about Stross’ sense of self, as his continuously smiley demeanor never left. Yet, the crutches elevated our sense of what Stross could achieve. Plus, they buoyed our spirits. The sight of him placing his bright blue crutches in a four-point gait always brought smiles – not just to Mark and me, but to anyone who happened to cross his path. Stross was our determined Mini-Us. He stood as tall as possible with those crutches, rhythmically bobbing his head in resolute willpower with each step.

Until the day of the news.

We understood from that day forward that Stross’ only means of ambulation would be a wheelchair. The pain of passing that milestone had taken my breath away and, along with it, any words to explain why I was crying. Eventually, I got this out: “I’m sorry I missed it.”

I had missed seeing the last time Stross would walk a hallway, my last opportunity to watch his awkward but grace-filled gait. Witnessing it helped me believe that impossible things were possible, but that testimony would not occur again. I had missed it.

I cried. I grieved.

Stross smiled. He was thrilled. He wanted to celebrate. There would be no more coaxing muscles into movements that resembled walking. No more physical therapy sessions designed to keep him bearing his weight as much as possible. We had always known those things would end. We had simply not known when.

We had missed it.

Stross: “I can go fast and do wheelies.”

Doctor: “Will you miss using your crutches, Stross?”

Stross: “No, you can throw them away.” (a smile)

Thrown away. I had thrown away opportunities to cherish things I now grieved. Today I can only close my eyes and try to remember. This photo helps some.

I saw a link on my Facebook wall tonight for a story titled: “Parents’ Bucket List for Dying Baby Girl Goes Viral.” It let me know that somewhere in Houston, a mom and dad are creating and celebrating milestones like crazy because their infant daughter has an incurable genetic disorder that will limit her life to 18 months.

They aren’t throwing away opportunities. They would give anything to have the life that I still – sometimes – grieve.

The mom and dad are keeping a blog written in their daughter Avery’s voice. In it, she describes her first kiss, courtesy of a 19-month-old boy named Cooper. The fact Avery will never walk – not even with braces and a walker or crutches – is not lost on me. Her parents have and will miss so many things that have been mine.

Painful. Poignant. Now I remember. This is the stuff of life.