By Jamie Bolling
A must to read if you read French! Gisèle Caumont has published her autobiography at the age of 87 taking the reader from World War II in France where she was born to the midlands of Sweden where she has been settled for over the past 20 years. She conveys how she as a woman born with a disability learned with her supportive parents as a child and with the help of friends who are soul mates to navigate the medical views of disability full of segregation and discrimination to the human rights model of disability which means being fully integrated in society as a speech therapist, artist and musician.
Gisèle is petite which facilitated her being carried to places to overcome inaccessibility. Her hunger to express herself in the arts and to experience Swedish nature brought her to conducting choirs to the shores of lakes with the mountains in the background. No accessible toilet? She and her personal assistants constructed one from a camping chair. Her fingers never looked like those who could play a piano or to imagine playing an organ, but she had the will and the way!
In this book which is called La Dame aux Roulettes or my translation in English The Lady on Wheels describes her life as well as the Independent Living movement which brought personal assistance to Sweden. It is through her personal assistance that Gisèle can be assisted to do that which she cannot do herself. From getting out of her bed to getting back into the bed, morning to night with those persons she has chosen and pays through state funding in Sweden, it is possible for her to be filled to the brim with satisfaction with life and to have the strength to overcome the barriers that were/are put in front of her.
Gisèle’s courage had her mounting planes alone from France to Sweden without any support knowing that as soon as she arrived on the other side, she would have to find the support to survive each of the coming days. Gisèle paints her story with warmth and anger, warmth to those she is thankful who gave her support that was indispensable for her to achieve in life to the anger against the French state that is taking its time to pass legislation allowing people with disability to live lives with full participation. As a friend of Gisèle sharing the dependence on personal assistance to live my life to the fullest as a person with disability, I laughed and cried along with Gisèle. I could visualize her brother running the streets of Paris pushing her wheelchair to get her to her exams on time when the transport system was on strike that particular day. The exam was her key to a future with a profession as speech therapist for which she had fought with force to gain. Seeing him wave down an accessible vehicle belonging to the radio station to ask for a lift for Gisèle and the wheelchair on top made me laugh. I know the streets of Paris and how inaccessible they are. I know Gisèle and have seen her determination! I have also learned here in Sweden that the attitude – we can fix it – makes life so much easier. I cried when I imagined the little girl in front of her piano eager to learn to play only to be met by a rude man that refused to teach her saying that with those fingers she will never play a piano. How wrong he was!
Gisèle was a young activist in France for the rights of disabled people and continued her activism in Sweden through STIL. STIL is the founder of Independent Living in Sweden. Gisèle is angry with France for not having come further in ensuring full participation and self-determination for disabled people. She chose Sweden as she knew she could live a fuller life through Independent Living and accessing personal assistance. She has not stopped in trying to make a change still in France. We can hope that the publication of this book in France can help her to achieve this goal.
With the hope that this book will soon be translated so many can access it, I am glad that I can read French. Gisèle’s inspirational story gave me hope that I too will live to be 87 having as rich of a life as she. Her story confirms that we who are promoting the rights of people with disability through Independent Living are achieving that which we visualize – hope and empowerment for people with disability.
👉 You can buy a French copy by clicking here.
