While they help their lady settle in, these gentlemen are invited to slip away. “Meanwhile, they go shopping”jokes Véronique Mauger. Coming from Plaine-et-Vallées, this Saturday January 11 in Bressuire she meets those who have become traveling companions within the Belle avec mon handicap association.
The broyé du Poitou, the chocolate cake, the coffee and the tea are on the table, the afternoon of Chantal, Danielle Chetritt and Sandrine Poirrier can begin. For a year now, around ten of them have been meeting once a month at the medico-social support service for disabled adults in Bressuire.
Women aged 80 to 90 told me how they used to meet up to discuss and share with women.
Sandrine Poirrier, member of Belle with my disability Bressuire
The association only submitted its statutes in December 2024. “We did it to be able to have a room at the association house”explains Sandrine Poirrier. She is the one who created Belle with my handicap.
“My family history led me to find myself alone in Bressuire”says the teacher at Saint-Joseph high school. “I joined an association of knitters where I found myself with women aged 80 to 90 who told me how they used to meet up to discuss, share with women… They hadn’t even thought about it but they were exchanging thus on their intimate life, their family problems, their children…”
Touched by what doctors first took for Charcot disease, Sandrine Poirrier discovered in 2023 that it was an intramedullary lipoma. His illness caused irreparable atrophy of his left leg.
The short scale of SAVS
Followed by Samsah (medico-social support service for disabled adults) and the Bressuire social life support service, she brought to life what could only have remained an idea. “We are invited to have projects”continues Sandrine Poirrier. It was from this invitation and the idea inspired by Sandrine Poirrier’s elder knitters that Belle avec mon handicap was born.
This is how around ten women affected by various disabilities meet. That day, there were only four of them. “We always live in the present moment. Our participation depends on our health that day”explains Véronique Mauger.
The current quickly passed between them. Perhaps the disability brings them together but it is undoubtedly not only that. “It was a good match between us”confirms Sandrine Poirrier.
I don’t think men perceive the way their disability is viewed in the same way.
Véronique Mauger, member of Belle with my disability Bressuire
They all share the desire to free themselves from looking at their disability. “I don’t think men perceive the way their disability is viewed in the same wayventures Véronique Mauger. We need to please. The way people look at us doesn’t always reflect beautiful things. We look at the chair more than ourselves. »
“We want to remain women despite the disability”continues Sandrine Poirrier. In their eyes, disabled men are perhaps more affected by their sense of power than by their appearance.
“Our bubble of pleasure”
It is also to preserve themselves that they find themselves in the protected framework of Samsah. To chat, a coffee would do just as well. “But we can want to laugh, cry and not want others to look at us”explains Véronique Mauger.
These meetings are their breathing space. They break the pace of medical follow-ups that punctuate their daily lives. The speakers they possibly invite are there only to start the discussions. They exchange worries, joys, sorrows and projects. This intimate club is open to other women in the same situation but it must be preserved. “It’s our bubble of pleasure. »
