I exactly remember the first time I saw her. I was going to a concert, and I had already enough time to go for a stroll at the Christmas fair in my town. Most of the articles offered for sale there was not my taste, the typical arts-and-crafts stuff. Eating the obligatory Bratwurst I strolled around as I suddenly spotted a wheelchair. Precisely, a wheelchair with a young woman in it.

Instictively my eye fell at her legs, a habit resulting from years of fascination for amputees. In most of these cases the sighting ended with the view of two legs resting on two pads. This time there were no pads, there were no legs at all. She was in her 20s, short fuzzy brown hair, a harsh face, not very pretty but attractive. She wore a thick knitted pullover and blue jeans. The most conspicious were her legs. The tips of her stumps were covered with round rubber pads like a soal of a shoe. I noticed that her stumps must be in boots, but I could not see more of them, because she wore her jeans over these boots. There she sat in her wheelchair having a nice time with her friends (I was too fixed on her, thus I cannot remember the guy who wheeled the chair) and I tried to pretend interest in bath salts and spices offered at one of the stands.

Soon I saw that the end of the right sleeve of her pullover was empty and some kind of phokomelic arm or stump (I could not figure out that at that time) was moving inside. Full of pleasant and stirring impressions I left to go to the concert.

May 1990

The next time I met her was at a big event in the neighbour town. I already wanted to leave as I spotted a wheelchair with a well-known woman in it. I remembered my first sighting immediately. A long-haired guy (her happy boy-friend ???) wheeled her chair. She wore blue jeans. Her stumps were in leather boots with rubber soal like two years ago. This time there was no pullover to cover her right arm. She wore a white T-shirt. Her right arm ended just below the elbow with a short stump. She used this stump to move forward the wheel-chair - for an admirer of amputees a striking sight. I followed them some minutes then they leaved into the town.

February 1992

I came back from a trip and had time to go to the bookstore at our railway station. She sat in her wheelchair wearing a black leather jacket. The right sleeve was empty, her thighs in boots. She was leafing through a mother-baby-magazine. Perhaps she was expecting a baby ?

December 1995

This was the last time I saw her. One day before christmas eve my town was full of people rushing for shopping they had not done the weeks before (me inclusive). Suddenly I saw a long-haired guy (the happy one :-)) wheeling a chair with a well-known woman it. She had a packet on her thighs. As you already know her thighs were in boots, brown lace-up leather boots with a rubber soal. I wondered several times if she used them to walk or to stand in and I phantasized how it would look like (As you know you cannot swing a booted stump, you have to circumduct it which causes certain balance problems, especially with one arm ending below the elbow).

They disappeared into a drugstore and I have to confess I waited in front of the store and followed them afterwards. Her friend wheeled her to an other drugstore and went on. I pretended interest in bath salts for a second time and watched her choosing the ideal perfume. The right sleeve of her leather jacked was rolled up and I could see her short stump which she used to move the right wheel of her chair. What a striking sight: An about thirty year-old woman in a black leather jacket with booted stumps and only one arm moving her chair with her stump and choosing her perfume !