Learning to Trust

“She what?” I asked Jeff, one of the counselors at the summer camp for the blind where I was also a counselor.

He eased my mother into a chair. “She went horseback riding,” Jeff said matter-of-factly.

Mom laughed. “And I didn’t fall off!”

My mother, who was both blind and a double amputee, had joined me for two weeks at the camp. That summer she wouldn’t allow her physical limitations to stop her from trying new things. She involved herself in every activity from horseback riding to putt-putt golf. Because I was assigned to other campers, I couldn’t be with her the whole time. I had to trust my fellow counselors to keep her safe. Yet some of the activities they allowed her to participate in, I would definitely have discouraged. But was I trying to put limits on her that she didn’t feel the need to put on herself? She was clearly thriving!

That summer with Mom taught me an invaluable lesson about trust. I had to trust others to look out for her, and I also had to trust her judgment in making decisions for herself, even if they were not what I would have chosen for her.