The wind is blowing with a slight breeze, with the sun shining bright yellow beams of light onto the beach goers who are happily going about their business on the beach.
The noise from children shouting with utter excitement as they splash around in the water, with parents close by to keep an eye on them, is soothing and reassuring to the little ones, while adults walk the stretch of beach to relieve the stress of daily life.
But they are all totally oblivious of the elderly lady sitting on a bench on the walkway. Next to her is a walker, her only means of enabling her to walk. The look on her face was sad as she stares at the beach.
I walked up to her and asked if I may sit next to her on the bench. She smiled and patted her hand on the seat for me to sit down. I pushed my own walker next to the bench.
We sat in silence for a while, then I said I would give anything to be able to put my feet one more time into the ocean. To feel the splash of the soft waves against my skin and taste the salt in the air.
She looked at me, and in that moment I knew instinctively that was her thoughts as well. She nodded, and said that possibility is no longer feasible for people like us as our beaches are not disabled friendly because there are no walkways into the sea for our specific needs as disabled people.
The loose sand makes it impossible to walk with a walker or wheelchair on the beach.
Has it ever occurred to the authorities, our ward councillors and even the general public to install such walkways for disabled people on our beaches here in the Helderberg?
