As they were leaving Olive Garden with their 8-year-old daughter after eating dinner, they noticed a note stuck to their car in the parking lot.
The note read, “Disabled? No. Just your big fat *****”
Kionna and her husband Dusty tried to take the note off the windshield before their daughter could see it, but it was too late. The little girl asked her parents why a stranger would leave them a note like that.
Kionna then wrote the following on Facebook:
“To the person/persons that left this note on my car at the Olive Garden on Memorial in OKC today, I’d like to say thank you!”
“Your misguided and uninformed attempt to shame me and my family provided an opportunity to teach my 8 year old daughter a lesson.
Upon seeing this note, she said ‘Mom, why would someone do that? They don’t even know us.’
This coming from a little girl who’s daddy will never get to walk her down the aisle, because, he is in fact disabled.
“So we explained to her that some people just have hate in their hearts.
We further explained how your actions can deeply affect others around you, and how she should always be conscious of others feelings.”
“I explained that she was right. These people didn’t know us.
They didn’t know that my husband has Muscular Dystrophy and has struggled with it his entire life.”
“They didn’t know that even though his doctors advised him to go into a wheelchair years ago, he refused, and instead, remained on his own two feet until he finally fell for the last time, blowing out both knees and breaking an ankle.
They didn’t understand that we’ve spent the last 2 years learning to adjust to a life in which he can’t even stand up to get in and out of a car.”
“They didn’t see that I’ve torn my rotator cuff lifting on him to assist him in his transitions. They have no idea that he already lives in constant pain, and that their hurtful words would only add to that. They didn’t know that the reason that he has a belly is because there are no stomach muscles left to hold everything in tight.
They didn’t know that our 8 year old already struggles to understand why her daddy can’t run and play with her the way other daddies do. They just didn’t know.
And because they didn’t know, they allowed the hate in their hearts to get the better of them.”
“So again, I’d just like to say Thank You.
Your ignorance provided a wonderful opportunity for me and my husband, who have struggled and survived and come out stronger in the last couple of years, to not only teach our daughter a valuable lesson, but provided another opportunity for us to overcome and to be thankful for the blessings that continue to come our way!”
Kionna hopes that her Facebook post, which went viral, will reach the person who left the note on her windshield. She wants everyone to know that there are people out there like her husband with struggles not always seen on the surface.
