Sunday Stroke Survivor ~ The Golf Cart

A few years ago, my husband and I considered buying a golf cart. With his morphine and seizures, it's unsafe for him to operate a motor vehicle. Shh, he does drive on rare occasions, but he does forgo his morphine to do it.


We were torn between a back seat or a flat bed. That indecision stopped us from buying one. The extra seats would come in handy for grandchildren, he may have had to pick up from school. At the time, we had four grandchildren in two schools a mile or less from the house. But the flat bed would enable him to do yard work, and even make trips to the grocery store. The key word here was ENABLE.

Women are less concerned about egos than men are. Women tend to be more forgiving of themselves where their egos are concerned. Men can be seriously crushed when there egos are questioned. For my husband there were many issues impacting his ego and what he could do and couldn't anymore. It was also a way to EMPOWER him.

These are two very important things (enable and empower) when considering an ego. When you consider how much is taken away, there has to be a way to bolster one's ego. To keep hope alive and the can do spirit. These two words allow for that. There was also the consideration of the property we have and mobility around twenty acres of land to consider.

Forget about golf. I'm talking about a necessity here. Until my husband got too sick to play, there wasn't a weekend he wasn't on the green. Until my last back surgery, I was right there with him. I actually played and won semi-pro golf tournaments from age 16 to 26 whenever time allowed. I guess I could relearn a less painful swing, but I've got enough relearning to do right now. But that was ancient history and neither of us used the golf carts anyhow.

 I'd even investigated solar power to recharge the batteries with since we would be off-grid on the property. Yeah, I'm a survivalist at heart. As you may have read here, I'm also for double and triple duty everything. The way I saw it, a golf cart served as a transport, security, and work horse modes.

After my stroke, the subject of golf carts came up again. Not only for my husband but me as well. Operation is simple. You push the pedal and it goes. You take your foot off the pedal and it stops. It has a smaller steering wheel so maneuvering and turning is a breeze...smaller turn radius. Four wheels means it's stable to get in and out of.

The decision was made this weekend that we should buy three of them.Before it was just my husband and I making the decision, now it's a deciding body of twenty. Anything that has to do with the family compound has to go through a vote of all members as does the cost. The golf carts purchases are no exception.

I know I used the word compound and it seems a bit extreme, but what else would you call a group of six families on one property? A commune? Well sort of, that's a bunch of different people coming together with similar founding beliefs. But it's so sixties-ish, and brings to mind hippies and free-love, etc that's not us. We could call it a community although we have no plans to incorporate it or grow larger. We are family strong.

It was agreed to install solar panels on all of them and the one two-seater with a flatbed would be purchased first and reside, for now, at my house since I only have two grandchildren in schools within traveling distance. So it's a win-win situation. Although I can drive a car now after a year post stroke, gas prices are ever rising. We gain independence, mobility, and working towards living on our property full time.

Nothing is impossible with determination.