Every once in awhile I'll be cruising social media and see someone I think is cool and decent make a joke about "having a stroke" and honestly every time my blood runs cold...
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I've never had a stroke, but I was a kid when my dad did. He was the kind of guy people just liked and he liked them, and he did awesome shit like rescue a girl who had fallen in a river, go in a submarine to the arctic and you know, be a GREAT dad that I adored.
He tried to keep on being those things after he had a stroke, but it was hard and he never fully recovered. His speech and mobility were very visible disabilities and people noticed and sometimes treated him differently because of it.
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My dad was an extrovert, and he loved being around people and socializing, and disability can be very isolating. Towards the end of his life he spent time online gaming and trying to connect with people in online spaces because like many disabled people it was hard for him to do irl.
My dad passed away many years ago, and I still miss him. And every time I see that joke, it's a sad, jarring reminder of the stigma and isolation he experienced as a result of his disabilities.
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I don't know why this is still an acceptable joke when most people have stopped using the "r" word or making most other disability jokes, but I think it'd be cool if this one disappeared into the abyss, too.
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@jencmars I've definitely been guilty of this in the past and hadn't really thought about it.
Let's see how good I'll be at catching myself beforehand in the future.
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@subtl It's one of those things that gets said so often I think it's easy to forget what it might really mean to someone else. Thanks for trying for the future!
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