A while back a writer of a letter to the editor complained about a fellow restaurant patron whose catheter urine bag hung, in full view, on the side of her chair.
“I would think,” wrote K. Gallimore of Dimondale, “that, if nothing else at least she, or her husband, could cover it up with a blanket. I also think that the restaurant management should have said something to her about not being sanitary.”
Well, in a lengthy belated e-mail to me, Michael L. Spawr, the husband of the catheter user fired back. He wrote, in part:
“So, my wife is supposed to stay home … because K. Gallimore finds her catheter bag offensive? K. Gallimore is reprehensible in my estimation because of his or her display of intolerance and … utter lack of compassion.
“I have been searching the assistive-device catalogs in an attempt to find a cover that would work. They don’t exist.
“I am sorry that K. Gallimore found my wife’s catheter bag offensive. He or she could have turned away from it , stopped staring and let it alone.
“My wife (nearly killed in a 1997 auto accident near Potterville) struggles every day with pain and discomfort — with a loss of mobility and freedom.
“She went out to enjoy one of her favorite places to eat, and found this small-minded individual …”
In all honesty I have mixed feelings about this one. A lack of tolerance is, indeed, a regrettable trait. But so is a lack of discretion.
If, in fact, there is no cover-up for catheter bags, somebody invent one — please.
