One mother from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, named Tricia Proefrock, and her 13-year-old son Mason were looking forward to having some fun at Disney World near Orlando recently. This wasn’t their first time visiting the place and they knew the day would be enjoyable. Mason, who uses a wheelchair because he has Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, a type of epilepsy that can affect vision, speech and mobility, loves meeting the fairy-tale characters, and Tricia is more than happy to offer her son incredible experiences they both cherish so very much.
As their visit came to an end, they left Disney World and headed to their car. There, on the windshield was a typed “Violation Ticket.” Apparently, someone who had no idea what these mother and son are going through every day decided to be sarcastic, not knowing the harm they would cause.
As it turned out, Tricia parked her car on top of the line and took up two spots in order to be able to get Mason out of the vehicle. Of course, she didn’t do this because she wanted, but because the employees told her to given the fact there were no empty lots with ramp access.
Speaking to WOFL, this mother explained, “When the side of the lot with ramp accesses are full, the only remaining spots have no ramp access. Every single time out of dozens of trips, the cast members instruct me to take two spots by parking directly on the white line. This gives me room to wheel my son out of the vehicle.”
Seeing the yellow ticket on her windshield brought tears to her eyes. This is what it said: “This is not a ticket, but if it were within my power, you would receive two.
“Because of your Bull Headed, inconsiderate, feeble attempt at parking, you have taken enough room for a 20 mule team, 2 elephants, 1 goat, and a safari of pygmies from the African interior.
“The reason for giving you this is so that in the future you may think of someone else, other than yourself. Besides I don’t like domineering, egotistical or simple-minded drivers and you probably fit into one of these categories.”
Those words were harsh. Especially because Tricia parked like that because she had no other option. “I was angry because I felt like the situation of taking two spots naturally sets us up to be judged,” she explained.
She later shared the note on Facebook simply because she wanted to raise awareness of the situation. “So, if you see a car taking two spots, maybe instead of wishing us a broken transmission,” she suggested, according to WOFL, “you can try to think about why a wheelchair-accessible van in a medical parking section might need two spots.”