Gladly and high spirited, we all prepared ourselves for the trip down to PIC in San Antonio.
But before we actually went down, I was wondering about wheelchair accessibility at PIC so I called to make sure and after they gave me some basic information, we went there. So my wife parked our Colonel Mobile and when we got down that’s when fear started to grip me. I saw a slanting ramp with major immovable obstacles in its path that was probably longer than an average football field —maybe one and a half of the length of a football field before we could come to the Charley’s Cabaret, where again we met the worst wheelchair accessibility issue. I said whatever happened to the shortest distance between the handicapped parking space and the facility?
But this event was not the end of the world. Many good things resulted from this adventure.
Because she saw me, a big guy in a wheelchair at the pool side with tears rolling down my cheeks, she asked, “How are you sir? My name is Ms. Deidre Halstead, PIC’s resident manager.”
I explained my disappointment that I might not only be able to attend my children’s Thanksgiving presentation and perform my song “In the Deep Blue Sea. I also made several suggestions about this and that.
She replied, “I’ll be right back.” She came back with my wife smiling, a sign of something good. My wife said, “Daddy it’s OK. Let’s come back at 10 a.m. tomorrow,” the day of our big event.
Wow! The next day I learned that PIC accepted all my suggestions and added better ones! Staffers were there to help roll me in. Ms. Halstead practically offered valet parking service free of charge just for me.
Now do you call that a special? No, I call that “The Colonel’s in the House!”
In the parking lot, I was instructed by the restaurant manager, Mr. Henry Worswick, that I would be warmly received through Magellan’s and ushered into Charley’s Cabaret. While rolling through Magellan’s, Henry said, “Colonel, I hope you will like what our engineers have stayed up all night to put up for you.”
They stretched out a wheelchair ramp from the audience place right down onto the stage!
I said to myself “Game!” But wait da minute. You think that’s all? No! They had instructed another staffer, Mr. Al Fernandez, my tukayo, to always be next to me to assist the Colonel on everything that he might need. If I could live like a king, it will be that night at the Charley’s Cabaret at PIC.
The children and including mine were up on stage. They blew the crowd away. We were all greatly entertained by these fine young students from a small school — Marianas Baptist Academy.
Thank you PIC, MBA students and the children from the Marianas Baptist Church for the fine Thanksgiving presentation. Bravo!
ALEXANDRO
“The Colonel” SABLAN
Dandan, Saipan
