Hi, you are “face to face with Shell”.
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After being discharged from hospital, it was very hard to get used to people staring, pointing and asking questions. I wish my family, friends, and I had more support on how to deal with this; professional support and/or someone who had been through something similar to help us to cope with what was happening.
I had amazing support from my family and friends but they were new to this as well, we were all thrown into these completely new situations and sometimes, had no idea what to do.
The next story I want to tell you happened at an outdoor event I attended with my family. I was a couple of years into my burn journey and my mum and I had gone to use the “ladies”. I was waiting on my mum at the sinks and this girl started staring and staring at me. I got a little upset by this and when my mum joined me, she seen that I was upset and asked what was wrong. I explained that the girl was continually staring at me. To be honest, my mum could see this, as she continued to stare, even after my mum joining me.
Obviously my mum got annoyed and told the girl off; at which point, the girl’s mum appeared and a short argument ensued. Mum and I left the “ladies” to get away from the situation, as we were both upset, and the situation wasn’t going to improve.
I can understand that the woman was protecting her daughter but she was unwilling to listen to what she had done and unwilling to listen to why my mum had reacted the way she had, and why I was upset by her daughter’s actions; I mean, would this other woman want her daughter to have someone stare at her continually? She was just unwilling to listen, therefore, the best thing to do was for mum and I to remove ourselves from the situation, it wasn’t going to get any better.
We got on with our day and tried not to let this incident ruin it. I am not sure if the woman would have re-thought what had happened but if she did, I hope that she had asked her daughter what had happened and maybe, taught her about how not to stare at someone who has a visible difference, and taught her other ways on how to handle a similar situation? Who knows?
On this occasion, by confronting someone, it didn’t work out but hey, it won’t always. We just have to try and stay positive, even if something like this has happened.