Disabled and Broken…literally
Hello my name is Marna Michele I was born with Arthrogryposis. You might already know a little bit about me through my podcast Crippled is Beautiful and because I was on American Idol in 2020. Since then I have continued to sing and chase my dream. But there have been some obstacles these past couple years. We all experienced Covid together. What a wild time. And I’ve had some personal obstacles as of late…in June I got into an automobile accident. It’s quite a crazy story! I had just bought myself a new handicapped accessible van, I was very proud that I managed to pull that off. I had this gorgeous 2020 Toyota Sienna for less than 24 hours before someone ran a red light and caused a collision between us. Long story short I was thankful enough to not be terribly injured. But my car was not OK. Thank goodness it was not totaled but it did have to be taken to the shop and it was going to be about two months before I would get my car back. So I had to find and rent a handicapped accessible vehicle for the time being. Jump a month and a half forward from my accident, my husband was driving this rental handicapped van as I was the passenger, and with some unlucky timing as he had to slam on the brakes I was bending forward to pick something up and the seatbelt disengaged I fell forward and I ended up breaking my tibia and fibula. I have now had a broken leg for almost 4 months, and I have been told it’s going to be another six months before I am healed. It’s been a very long and tumultuous road, and already being disabled I ran into feeling even more disabled. If that makes sense. I reached out through Instagram to my community and so many of you have given me words of strength and advice in time of need. You empowered me and I’m forever grateful. Something I’ve learned from all this is that I have truly surrounded myself with amazing humans. For example my husband, y’all this man has taken amazing care of me and managed to provide strength and love during a time that was very difficult. For the first month I was incapable of doing many things I was so used to being able to do. It was quite humbling. Through this time I feel I have become stronger, I have had to face many fears such as going to doctor appointments, getting poked with needles, and serial casting. All things I have been traumatized by since childhood. Young me handled similar situations with more grace than adult me. I try to look back at that time and gain strength from her. With all this comes experience, gratitude, hope. Thank you for allowing me to share a bit of my story during this time. Community matters and I’m proud to be a part of such a strong one.
