The following is my first (and last) experience at a water-park with my kids. This was a couple years post stroke. I was on vacation and I had the kids with me. I wanted to do something that would be fun for the kids so I decided the water-park should do the trick. We had been there a few hours and the kids were enjoying themselves and I was enjoying watching them. I saw them coming down the slide for the up teennth time but instead of going up again they came running to up to me. " Mom, Mom did you see us" I assured them that I had but that's not really what they wanted. " It's so much fun" they said "you have to go up and try it" "Are you nuts, no way" I said. " You can do it, Mom, you'll like it" I was never one to pass a new experience so I let myself be talked into it.

Not totally out of my mind, I took precautions. I notified the bodyguard at the pool under the slide that I was handicapped but wanted to try this, so could he please watch out for me in case I didn't surface after I hit the water, no problem, so I told the same thing to the one at the top of the slide. O.K, I was all set. My oldest son told me. "Mom, you have to remember one thing, you have to remain in a sitting position because if you go down on your back, you will be going too fast" Sure I could do that , I took the bull by the horns and went up. So I sit on the slide, easy, I can do this. A little push and I am air born . The first bump I hit, I fell on my back and went all the way down on my back, FAST. I thought I was going to die but no, I made it and didn't drown when I hit the pool at 100 mph.

When I got my breath back, I started laughing, Wow, I did it. I wasn't supposed to go down that fast . Oh well! A story I could tell my grandkids, if I ever get any. It is very funny today but if I had checked my bathing suit, I wonder...

That was me in my 30's I was always ready to try anything, I refused to believe I couldn't do something. Most of the time it was worth it and gave me lots to laugh at and the people around me laughed at or with me. Stay tuned for more of mcd's crazy shananigans.