{"id":31,"date":"2011-07-13T14:49:21","date_gmt":"2011-07-13T19:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lostmyhearing.com2011\/07\/13\/magic-moments-at-guilderland\/"},"modified":"2024-02-17T14:23:59","modified_gmt":"2024-02-17T18:23:59","slug":"magic-moments-at-guilderland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/?p=31","title":{"rendered":"Magic Moments at Guilderland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guilderland Travel Plaza is a charming rest stop on the NY State Thruway at mile post 153 Eastbound.\u00a0\u00a0 Sitting between the Schenectady and Albany exits, it’s a great place to stop if you need gas, food, washrooms, or even a nice place to sit for a while.\u00a0 It’s also the place I had one of the most magical experiences of my life.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Driving to New York with a cast up to my knee required a little more resting than we would usually do.\u00a0 As we approached this rest stop, I knew I needed a break.\u00a0 Darling Hubby got out the wheelchair and helped me into it so I could make my way to the ladies’ room.\u00a0 (I didn’t want him to wheel me there because we won’t leave our precious pup alone in the car.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Piece of cake,” I thought. I know the rest stops have buttons to open the door for wheelchairs.\u00a0\u00a0But before I could\u00a0roll myself to the button, a young lady came running out and did it for me.\u00a0 She\u00a0was employed by the rest stop (McDonalds?) and she\u00a0took the handles of the chair and pushed me all the way to the\u00a0ladies’ room.\u00a0 When I came out of the stall, she was waiting for me and pushed me over to the sink, even handing me paper towels.<\/p>\n

I was so touched by this kindness, I wanted her to know how much I appreciated it. A tip wasn’t enough – I wanted her to know what it meant to me.\u00a0 When I tried to thank her, she didn’t respond.\u00a0 And then… it happened….<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She gestured to me that she couldn’t hear.\u00a0 Well, it’s been quite some time since Darling Hubby and I took American Sign Language and I thought I had forgotten it, but the next thing I knew I was back in Cody’s class and signed, “you deaf?”\u00a0 That’s it – two little words and her face lit up like sun in the sky.\u00a0 “Yes, yes,” she signed, her fist bobbing in front of her.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She wheeled me outside and I turned to face her.\u00a0 We then “talked” for about 10 minutes in ASL, the highlight of my day, if not hers too.\u00a0 She told me how much she enjoys working at the Guilderland Travel Plaza – how wonderful the people are to her, how grateful she is to be there.\u00a0 And then she introduced me to her friend, who also works there – and is also deaf.\u00a0 I introduced them to Darling Hubby and the four of us “chatted” a little bit more.<\/p>\n

I thanked her again for her kindness and she thanked me for talking to her.\u00a0 We all waved and smiled and felt good inside.\u00a0 “God bless you,” was the last thing she signed to me and I truly felt he did. And as Darling Hubby pulled out of our parking space, I took a picture:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"guilderland11\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Stop at Guilderland if you’re anywhere near it.\u00a0 Even when things are feeling overwhelming and hard, magic still happens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guilderland Travel Plaza is a charming rest stop on the NY State Thruway at mile post 153 Eastbound.\u00a0\u00a0 Sitting between the Schenectady and Albany exits, it’s a great place to stop if you need gas, food, washrooms, or even a nice place to sit for a while.\u00a0 It’s also the place I had one of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":455,"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions\/455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}