Ontario woman with MS gets note shaming her for using handicap parking space
Andrea Tingey, Postmedia Network
First posted: Saturday, July 23, 2016 07:28 PM EDT | Updated: Saturday, July 23, 2016 08:28 PM EDT
ST. CATHARINES, Ont. - Aneta Prantera has had an accessible parking permit for four years, but only uses it on ‘bad days’.
The 29-year-old has multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that destroys the coating around her nerves. The condition leads to a variety of problems, like numbness, fatigue, and trouble walking. These problems are made worse in the heat.
Aneta was shocked to find an angry note on her windshield after leaving the Pen Centre Wednesday.
She appears healthy, but was diagnosed with MS in 2012 ago after losing vision in her right eye in 2011.
“There’s always a comment,” said the St. Catharines native. “There’s always something under someone’s breath. I shake it off when I hear it, but to come out to a letter on my car like that, I was taken back and in shock that people are that ignorant.”
“What I might look like on the outside is not how I feel like on the outside,” she said, noting she was the only car in the accessible area at the time.
“A handicap permit is meant for handicap people Only!,” read the letter, “You are not handicap you should be ashamed of yourself for taking a handicap spot simply because you are Lazy. Shame - shame.”
Aneta called her niece and sister Christina Prantera in tears. When Christina heard the news a photo of the note to Facebook.
“I wanted people to understand that this isn’t acceptable,” said Christina. The post has now received over 2,000 shares as of Friday evening.
“Something that was really bad and negative … turned extremely positive. By the end of the day (Aneta) was so overjoyed by the response that she got,” she said. “I didn’t know it was going to get this big. I really didn’t.”
The most frustrating thing for Aneta was the use of the world ‘lazy’.
“If I was lazy I would have been put in a wheelchair three years ago and have given up,” said Aneta. “Instead, I went to the Hotel Dieu Shaver, I had intense physiotherapy … I taught myself how to walk and think again.”
The disease has affected every aspect of Aneta’s life. She had to sell her investment of the pizzeria she owned with her sister because she was not able to work in the heat. She switched careers altogether, from culinary to retail. The note came a day before her first shift at Walmart.
This isn’t the first time Aneta has had this problem. She had a similar experience outside of Foodland in Thorold.
“I was getting into my car and an older gentlemen parked next to the handicap parking spot started yelling at me about how I’m using my grandma’s parking permit and I should be ashamed of myself,” she said. Luckily, a uniformed police officer walking by was able to diffuse the situation.
Robyn Garner, Manager of Programs and Services at the MS Society Niagara Peninsula Chapter of Hope, said Aneta’s situation isn’t unique.
“I think the issue that may people with MS face when exiting their vehicle is that they’re seen as someone that is not disabled. Those symptoms may not be as visible to other people as they are to the person living with the disease,” said Garner.
“It has happened to other people,” she added.
One of those people is Regina Szymanski. Szymanski is a volunteer at the MS Society and also knows Aneta personally.
When Szymanski was first diagnosed 13 years ago, she was confronted outside of a Best Buy with her children in her car.
“He came up to me and started giving me a hassle,” she said. “My kids were quite upset at the time. So now whenever I do park I’m always scared.”
“It happens frequently,” she added. “I think all of us have had at least one experience with that.”
Aneta Prantera has multiple sclerosis and makes use of a handicap sticker for her vehicle. Recently an unnamed individual left an angry letter on her windshield for rightfully using her handicap pass at the Pen Centre. Photo taken on Friday, July 22, 2016. (Julie Jocsak/ St. Catharines Standard/ Postmedia Network)
I don't usually make posts like this one but felt the need to share and hopefully educate this person or anyone else how feels the need to not mind their own business. This afternoon around 3pm my sister Aneta Prantera called Jada Melia and I very upset (crying and shaking to be honest) some extremely ignorant uneducated person decided it was their duty to leave this horrible msg for her on her c...ar in the pen centre parking lot. As many of you know my sister was diagnosed at a very young age with multiple sclerosis. This chronic progressive disease is a daily struggle for her and the last thing she needs to be dealing with is being upset or feeling ashamed because she needs to park close to the entrance. Instead of taking the time to write this hurtful hateful note you need to spend more time educating yourself. Luckly she will get over this and move forward with her fight against this terrible disease that takes over too many young women's (and peoples lives) but how disgusting of you to belittle someone else when you have no clue what they are struggling with. SHAME SHAME you say.... Shame on you!!!! I don't know how you sleep at night. Please help me out and share this post so that maybe it can help educate people so that this type of nonsense doesn't go on anymore See More
— feeling heartbroken at The Pen Centre - St.Catharines.
Ontario woman with MS gets note shaming her for using handicap parking space | O
Andrea Tingey, Postmedia Network
First posted: Saturday, July 23, 2016 07:28 PM EDT | Updated: Saturday, July 23, 2016 08:28 PM EDT
ST. CATHARINES, Ont. - Aneta Prantera has had an accessible parking permit for four years, but only uses it on ‘bad days’.
The 29-year-old has multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that destroys the coating around her nerves. The condition leads to a variety of problems, like numbness, fatigue, and trouble walking. These problems are made worse in the heat.
Aneta was shocked to find an angry note on her windshield after leaving the Pen Centre Wednesday.
She appears healthy, but was diagnosed with MS in 2012 ago after losing vision in her right eye in 2011.
“There’s always a comment,” said the St. Catharines native. “There’s always something under someone’s breath. I shake it off when I hear it, but to come out to a letter on my car like that, I was taken back and in shock that people are that ignorant.”
“What I might look like on the outside is not how I feel like on the outside,” she said, noting she was the only car in the accessible area at the time.
“A handicap permit is meant for handicap people Only!,” read the letter, “You are not handicap you should be ashamed of yourself for taking a handicap spot simply because you are Lazy. Shame - shame.”
Aneta called her niece and sister Christina Prantera in tears. When Christina heard the news a photo of the note to Facebook.
“I wanted people to understand that this isn’t acceptable,” said Christina. The post has now received over 2,000 shares as of Friday evening.
“Something that was really bad and negative … turned extremely positive. By the end of the day (Aneta) was so overjoyed by the response that she got,” she said. “I didn’t know it was going to get this big. I really didn’t.”
The most frustrating thing for Aneta was the use of the world ‘lazy’.
“If I was lazy I would have been put in a wheelchair three years ago and have given up,” said Aneta. “Instead, I went to the Hotel Dieu Shaver, I had intense physiotherapy … I taught myself how to walk and think again.”
The disease has affected every aspect of Aneta’s life. She had to sell her investment of the pizzeria she owned with her sister because she was not able to work in the heat. She switched careers altogether, from culinary to retail. The note came a day before her first shift at Walmart.
This isn’t the first time Aneta has had this problem. She had a similar experience outside of Foodland in Thorold.
“I was getting into my car and an older gentlemen parked next to the handicap parking spot started yelling at me about how I’m using my grandma’s parking permit and I should be ashamed of myself,” she said. Luckily, a uniformed police officer walking by was able to diffuse the situation.
Robyn Garner, Manager of Programs and Services at the MS Society Niagara Peninsula Chapter of Hope, said Aneta’s situation isn’t unique.
“I think the issue that may people with MS face when exiting their vehicle is that they’re seen as someone that is not disabled. Those symptoms may not be as visible to other people as they are to the person living with the disease,” said Garner.
“It has happened to other people,” she added.
One of those people is Regina Szymanski. Szymanski is a volunteer at the MS Society and also knows Aneta personally.
When Szymanski was first diagnosed 13 years ago, she was confronted outside of a Best Buy with her children in her car.
“He came up to me and started giving me a hassle,” she said. “My kids were quite upset at the time. So now whenever I do park I’m always scared.”
“It happens frequently,” she added. “I think all of us have had at least one experience with that.”
Aneta Prantera has multiple sclerosis and makes use of a handicap sticker for her vehicle. Recently an unnamed individual left an angry letter on her windshield for rightfully using her handicap pass at the Pen Centre. Photo taken on Friday, July 22, 2016. (Julie Jocsak/ St. Catharines Standard/ Postmedia Network)
I don't usually make posts like this one but felt the need to share and hopefully educate this person or anyone else how feels the need to not mind their own business. This afternoon around 3pm my sister Aneta Prantera called Jada Melia and I very upset (crying and shaking to be honest) some extremely ignorant uneducated person decided it was their duty to leave this horrible msg for her on her c...ar in the pen centre parking lot. As many of you know my sister was diagnosed at a very young age with multiple sclerosis. This chronic progressive disease is a daily struggle for her and the last thing she needs to be dealing with is being upset or feeling ashamed because she needs to park close to the entrance. Instead of taking the time to write this hurtful hateful note you need to spend more time educating yourself. Luckly she will get over this and move forward with her fight against this terrible disease that takes over too many young women's (and peoples lives) but how disgusting of you to belittle someone else when you have no clue what they are struggling with. SHAME SHAME you say.... Shame on you!!!! I don't know how you sleep at night. Please help me out and share this post so that maybe it can help educate people so that this type of nonsense doesn't go on anymore See More
— feeling heartbroken at The Pen Centre - St.Catharines.
Ontario woman with MS gets note shaming her for using handicap parking space | O
