There was an electric wheelchair

being driven on the footpath ahead of me yesterday. It was going very slowly. This was definitely a good thing as it kept veering to the left. The chair and the driver would likely have ended in the gutter had it been going any faster. 

Someone was walking next to the wheelchair as well. She was staring in the window of a local charity shop. I suppose she saw my reflection in the window because she looked back and said,

    "There's someone behind you. You have to go to one side."

 She looked rather anxiously at me.

    "It's all right. I'll wait," I told her.

It did take a moment too. This was very obviously a "learner driver". When the wheelchair was safely to one side and had stopped I rode past and looked back at the driver, a young man. 

He grinned at me and said, "Thanks for waiting."

The woman with him was talking to someone from the charity shop so I had a short chat.

   "New?" I asked

   "Second day. It's the first time I've ever been out."

   "Driving yourself?"

He nodded. His pride in his achievement was obvious.

   "When I get the hang of it then I'll be able to go everywhere by myself."

We chatted for a moment longer and then I went on telling him,

    "Don't get caught for speeding."

His laughter followed me around the corner.

He won't be going "everywhere" of course because there are far too many places a wheelchair, especially an electric wheelchair, cannot go. It will undoubtedly be a while before those who help him are happy about his ability to go anywhere by himself too.

All this made no difference to him right then. It had, he told me, taken eleven years of what sounded like sheer and utter determination to get that far and he was obviously going to make the most of it. He's going a long way.