Driving Miss Dorothy

My last car Wilma was grey, she took me from A to B without a hitch.  I loved 5th Gear...she flew; a tank full of petrol and the world was at my feet.

After the seizure jump started my BT journey, a letter from the DVLA invited me to separate from my beloved driving licence. I took a photograph of my pass to freedom but quivering lips and shaking hands stopped me responding; my sister slid it into the envelope and took it away. 


Wilma sat on the drive for almost a year until someone murdered Mr Hs' car, then with smiling headlights she hit the road.  

I counted the months until my first year was up and my pass to freedom returned;  but in bed one morning as the sun peeped under the curtains my arm shot out twenty times trying to stop non existent traffic. I was six months into my year. GP and Epilepsy Consultant seen, tablets changed and the drive clock starting ticking again. Another eighteen months passed...

...the brown envelope hit my mat on July 13th. Mr H at work, I ran across the road frantically waving the envelope at my neighbours. D Day had arrived.

Lazy left leg meant driving Wilma was impossible, no more sliding her into 5th gear! Visits to the Mini dealers had been frequent, my first in a wheelchair. I wanted a smiley car; a car bought with my heart not my head. 

A second hand, red automatic mini with racing stripes came in...my girl....my Dorothy!  Home again behind the wheel.. like I had never been away.

I cruised along in 'Dorothy' as light streamed through her panoramic sun roof, a grin split my face; freedom again. Delightful trips to the sea and Bath with my friend Jon followed. Dorothy was Our Girl!

But my head mis-behaved... a visit to my GP with heavy heart the following year on July 13th....the funny turns and twitches were seizures...stop driving immediately she said. I slunk home head hanging low. 

I brushed dust off my bus pass, found bus timetables in the back of drawers...put taxi numbers back in my mobile (the wind up one!) and mapped out my compact world....for now...

Dorothy sits on the drive, she smiles at me as I pass; waiting for the day when I will slide in behind the steering wheel and take her back to the sea....