Belly Down, Under Fire
The story of an elderly, physically handicapped woman who got kicked out of San Jose
Story and Photos by G. Melesaine

The first day I met Stephanie, she invited me to her home for dinner. Rolling her wheelchair up to our office, she made no gestures that she needed help. I offered to help anyway, which was a wrong idea to make assumptions that she couldn't manage on her own. She didn't need help. She was in a wheel chair, somewhat paralyzed from the waist down except physically and mentally she's strong enough to get herself through any entrances that she comes across.

It was kind of awkward for anyone to come up to me and invite me to their home for dinner because people in America don't do that. Some people in America even cringe when other people say hello. But actually, probably anywhere else in the world people would probably think I look like someone who is more likely to rob them. I went to her home, which was a small RV parked in an alley surrounded by fields and autobody shops. The autoshop owner had given her the RV to stay, which was located on the side of the shop. Eating peach cobbler, she explained that the City had complained about her being there. She would have to leave the property in a couple of days.

I hadn't heard from Stephanie until she was settled in her new area, which was located at an expensive RV park in Pleasanton. She had spent all day traveling from there to our office in San Jose. My friend and I took her to Pleasanton to check out the new place. Finding her space was already taking more time than I expected. Almost driving a mile into the park we found a lot that sort of looked like a prison parking lot with dozens of expensive RV's and found her cozy home in between $100,000 RVs. A couple days earlier she had made a trip in her wheelchair to the nearest store which was about seven miles from where she was staying. She tried to cut a couple miles off that trip by going on a shortcut which had her slip her body and wheelchair underneath a fence and fight through oncoming traffic. The trip in the car was also longer than expected.

If you know Stephanie, her sweet personality is very persuasive. We reached the grocery store and she asked me to go in and buy this month's Cosmopolitan. That was probably the most awkward feeling I've ever felt, to walk into a grocery store in one of the richest cities in California and purchase a Cosmopolitan. In the issue there was an article on women who were physically crippled from the war, women who Stephanie felt a close connection with, women who are forgotten and have to fight their battles sometimes alone. We drove back to her RV, passed the security guard working the front whom already knew Stephanie, promising him cookies.
Stephanie insisted that we share the Cosmo with others. She says it is to remind us that as some of us are living life comfortably, others are, “laying belly down, under fire.”