Friends and dating (part 1)

My family was invited up to Hidden Valley one day to visit with friends. Before we arrived, my mom already didn't like it because she thought it was in the middle of nowhere. But when we got there, she fell in love with it. She felt like she was back in British Columbia with all the trees. That same day, my dad bought a lot to build us a cabin. We spent the next sixteen years heading to Hidden Valley for weekends and holidays.

It was here that I made a friend I thought would last forever. Mark was one of my best friends and during the 16 years that my family owned the cottage, we would spend all our time together. We met one day at the beach; we were both there with our families. Our mothers started talking as they both had a child in a wheelchair. They introduced us to each other and we had an immediate bond for knowing what the other person was going through; he was one of my first friends in a wheelchair. We hit it off after that.

Of course, our wheelchairs weren't the only thing we had in common. We found that we shared a lot of interests and both enjoyed the same things: music, movies, riding around at the cabin, and Between Friends.  We would cruise around, visiting friends, and hanging out.  We each couldn't wait until the next weekend when we would see each other again.

We both started attending Camp Horizon in the summer so we could spend more time together and make new friends.  I cried the first time I went because I missed my parents so much.  As I grew up, I loved going there to meet new people. There was a banquet and dance at the end of each camp session. The camp leaders were special people who always ensured we had a great time. The counsellors made us forget that we had CP. I still keep in touch with some of them and we get together at least once a year.

Either Mark's or my parents would pick us up from camp and bring us straight to the cottages. Nothing too eventful ever happened at the cottages but we always had fun with the simple things, enjoying just being together.  Our parents never minded our adventures because they knew we were safe.  Mark started bringing his friend Joseph to the cabin and the three of us got along very well.

In my eyes, Mark and Joseph were closer to each other than I was to either of them. Mark was the prankster in our group and would try to keep Joseph on his side of arguments and discussions, but Joseph usually backed me up. Joseph was five years older than I was, and Mark and I were almost the same age.