The HOA Voted To Ban My Wheelchair Ramp As "Non-Traditional"

The one vote against was a retired postwoman named Dot, who is eighty-one and who, at the meeting, said only this: "You are all going to be old."

The ramp is wooden. It is stained the same colour as the deck it attaches to. It has a handrail because my father is seventy-four and has one leg and is stubborn, and I would rather he had a rail than a fall.

It was built by a licensed contractor to code, with a permit, and the permit is on file with the city, and I brought the permit to the meeting in a plastic sleeve like a man who has learned that paper is a weapon.

The board said the issue was not the permit. The issue was that the ramp was "non-traditional" for the "streetscape".

I asked what tradition, exactly. The neighbourhood was built in 1998.

The president said, and this is verbatim, because I recorded it, which is legal in my state and which I recommend to everybody: "We have standards, and they don't change because of one family's circumstances."