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Showing posts with the label Fire in the Heart

The Glass is Always Half Full

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On rare occasions you chance upon a personality who has the resilience and tenacity to make such a startling impact on you that you are forced to rethink your priorities and curb those pity parties you indulge in. Frederika Menezes is one such person. She amazes and stupefies you with her positivity in the face of what others would consider an incapacitating physical disability. Frederika has cerebral palsy, and remains in a wheelchair for the most part but her mind is razor sharp. Her parents, Angela and Jose are retired GPs and dote on Frederika. In some families this condition may have been deemed burdensome but it was not so for Frederika. She asserts she was not treated as a person with a disability as a child. She says, ‘I wasn't aware of what I could do or be so I just enjoyed the attention. To be honest, I was never treated different. Not really.’ Her alma mater is People’s High School, Panaji. She stresses the fact she attended regular school as there is also the School fo