Back in 2020, I wrote an article for the ABC about how being disabled adds an extra layer to the challenges of making new friends.
It was well received, and I even got a few replies from some lovely local strangers offering to meet me for a coffee.
But one other surprising connection came out of that article. It had to do with a photo I included, which was taken back in 2018 during a trip to visit family in the US.
The story of my holiday snap
As we walked through the streets of Portland, Oregon, we came across a small coffee shop by the name of Stumptown.
As a quadruple amputee, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to quickly rip off my prosthetic arms and snap a photo before anyone noticed.
Nothing happened until years later, when I picked it out while looking for fun photos to accompany my ABC article.
As it turned out, the article made it to an international audience. A few months later, as I checked my phone over breakfast, there was a message on my social media from a fellow in Portland.
He'd seen the article and he recognised the coffee shop in my photo. It's actually directly across the road from his office.
So, in celebration, he shared the article in his company's weekly newsletter. He was amazed to see a little patch of Portland featured in an article published on the other side of the world in sunny Australia.
To share or not to share?
Unfortunately, this fellow's HR department didn't see the light side of his actions; he was asked to immediately remove the photo.
Being quite puzzled around the situation, he contacted me to ask my opinion — and to beg for forgiveness if indeed he had stepped out of line.
But did he overstep?
I took the photo to capture a fun moment in time — a chance opportunity to again revel in the fact that, yes, I'm now permanently disabled and that I'm slowly learning to be proud of that fact.
I lost my hands and feet to sepsis 10 years ago. Ever since, my husband and I have been taking weird and wonderful photos of my prostheses.
Often we'll capture my hands and feet getting up to mischief or doing odd things around the house. And, quite honestly, my prostheses have taken on their own personas and given us a huge amount of fun and happy distraction.
I've shared these photos on social media, and it has helped enormously, both with coming to terms with our situation and by allowing the conversation with our immediate community to be one of positivity and acceptance.
But is it too much for a stranger to share them as well? I say no.
Share my photos all you like — on one condition
Firstly, I made the decision to put the photo out there, so share away as much as you like. But I would ask that you consider one condition.
It must be done in celebration and not to show how "inspirational" we disabled people are.
Certainly, a disabled woman standing in front of a coffee shop is not something that should cause you to try harder in your own life or motivate you to get out of the house more often.
But you can share a photo to simply show the joy in life's small, magical moments — like my friend did when he shared my photo in his company's newsletter.
In this case, the photo captured a regular person — me — on holiday with their kids; it just so happens that I don't have any hands.
I'm glad the photo made it into the newsletter of some corporate office way over in Portland, Oregon.
What happened when my photo was shared in a support group
Surprisingly that was well over three years ago. But recently, while I was drinking my morning coffee, that same photo popped up on my social media — this time in an online support group for people living without hands.
Kevin from America had seen it and, again, he decided to share it in the group.
Hooray, what fun. And yes, it was shared in celebration. There were comments saying, "That made my day" and "I love this".
I replied to the group, telling them all the story of how this one little photo made it around the world — and caused a big kerfuffle in a small corporate office.
In the end, I'm grateful that it has given numerous people a chance to pause and think — including myself.