Sitting next to a pond watching the ducks or geese would be so relaxing

I read somewhere that there was a huge old mall, which had outlived it's usefulness and rather than tear it down, they converted it into a Central Health Center, with small apartments, for the disabled and elderly.

How about turning much of the paved parking lot into a beautiful pond, where you can watch the ducks and geese floating peacefully, with not a care in the world. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to sit next to the pond, with it's well kept grass and shade trees around it, with benches and picnic tables?

Being disabled and using braces and crutches, it was fairly easy to for me to get around, at first. I was able to drive a car, with hand controls, which opened up a new world for me. When I was younger, it was easy for me to service my first car, myself, and get in and out of it.

Over time, it became more and more difficult for me to get around. Having been diagnosed with polio, when I was 2 ½, it seemed as I got older, I began losing the strength, in my arms. When I was young, it was somewhat easy for me to get up, whenever I fell.

I had a few jobs, in the mid 1970's, but they didn't last. Finally it came to the point, where no matter where I looked, I could not find a job. When I gave up, I had taken a night class, in upholstery, so decided to create my own job and start my own upholstery business.

People thought I was crazy, to try and do something so labor intensive, but I wanted to try and take care of myself. At that time, it was next to impossible to even begin to live on disability, since you didn't get much of a cash benefit each month.

I survived, in a way, on the upholstery, as long as I had someone bring the furniture to me and put it on the tables, which I had made. I think working with the upholstery is what kept my strength up, but eventually it kept getting more and more difficult for me to do and I was losing interest in it.

I stopped upholstering the end of 2008 and little by little, it became more and more difficult for me to get around. I had finally gotten on disability, in the fall of 2002, and the monthly benefit wasn't all that bad, but I had too many expenses, so was always scraping, to get by.

By the fall of 2010, when I moved into a different apartment, I decided to check into getting a power chair. At that time, I was still walking with braces and crutches, but was stumbling and actually falling from time to time.

Not wanting to do something to either one or both my arms, I started the process of getting a power wheel chair. I was lucky, in the sense I had Medicare and Medicaid, so with the 2 of them, was able to get a power wheel chair although the red tape took me almost 6 months, before I actually finally got it.

I had lucked out and found a mini van, with a ramp and hand controls and with the help of a generous couple, from my church, was able to purchase it. Of course it cost $10,000 and the payment was $276 a month, plus the insurance and upkeep.

I was able to move into a low-income apartment, in a city not far from where I was currently living. My rent was based on how much I made, I had electric heat, so since I lived upstairs, facing northeast, my electric was not too expensive, which made it much easier to make ends meet.

I was depending on the disability and the paper routes, which I was doing, to help me pay the bills. Of course the company I was delivering the papers for, was taking advantage of me and I was only ruining my vehicle, while they got someone to deliver their shoppers for practically free. With all my expenses, I doubt I was making anything doing it.

Of course I ended up totaling, the van, but I got enough out of the accident, to pay off the loan, on the van, so now without all those expenses, it was much easier for me to make ends meet.

Now that I no longer had the van, I really didn't need a vehicle, because without the vehicle, I could not deliver the papers anymore, so that meant even fewer bills and expenses. Being where I am at, it is handy, with the power chair, to go shopping, even though it is about a mile away.

I would love to find a place, maybe in an old shopping mall, which has been repurposed and now has Health Care, apartments, a small grocery store & little shops featuring items hand made, by residents or locals, in the area. I would love to be able to plant flowers and take care of them.

I would love to have most of what I would need, within easy access, inside, yet able to access other areas outside. Maybe have a pond, with a lot of trees, flowers and shrubs.

There are a lot of people, who don't drive, who would love to live in something like this. Being an old mall, there would be numerous sky lights to bring in natural lighting, plenty of greenery, maybe a fountain, with a pool around it and plenty of room to walk, for exercise.

Even though you would be inside, you would still have access to the outside, where the massive parking lot is replaced by a pond, surrounded by grass and other greenery. There could be picnic tables and benches, where you could sit and absorb the natural surroundings and the sound of nature.

It got me to thinking. More below the fold.