Sitting Girl: Each Life is a Melody, Friendship a Harmony
Glasser, Alice
Synopsis "Sitting Girl: Each Life is a Melody, Friendship a Harmony"
"The question I loathe most is, 'What's wrong with you?' because I don't think there's anything wrong with me." These words bring to life a story inspired by two girls, one wheelchair and a friendship so alive, it needs to be told by a voice never heard before using a whole new concept: a full length symphony of words. Sitting Girl sings with tenderness and laughter, and is filled with unexpected moments and a range of emotions, unique and unimaginable. And, the beginning of the book doubles as a stand alone short story that can be downloaded for free from the website Sitting Girl. I began composing this story many years ago unaware of what I was doing, mentally tucking away image after image of the friendship between my petite, excitable daughter and the calm 13 year old who rolled into her life. The girls were already in college when the idea of writing this story occurred to me. My Sitting Girl greeted the idea with enthusiasm, sharing for the first time the complete story of her life that I found astonishing. I had never known what she and her family had been through. But she wanted the world to know leaning towards a biography with her real name. But I desired more freedom for me and privacy for others. I balanced our wishes by going with a novelized version based on many real moments and events, while trying not to alter any of her physical, social or emotional struggles. I use her own thoughts and feelings to describe what she went through and what it is like to be her, a gifted photographer with a captivating sense of humor. But most of all I want to honor a young woman who could have been filled with resentment, but instead permeates her life with love, laughter and poodle panties. So I came up with two new terms, Sitting Person and Different Capabilities, to replace the inherent negativity found in words like disabled or wheelchair bound, because my Sitting Girl remains the least disabled person I ever met.
