The Passport

Instructions to apply for a Passport appear quite simple and straightforward. To renew an Australian Passport appears even more simple and straightforward. One can download the forms, fill them in and take them to the Post Office. Following this a photo is taken which generally makes the passport owner look like a convicted criminal. It is attached to the form then all that is needed is a signature. Easy enough really in the grand scheme of things.

Today was a special day for Jamie, he spruced himself up, had a shave, cleaned and polished his wheelchair (well that part isn’t entirely correct). Then off we drove to the post office for ‘The Passport’. Since his stroke Jamie has had problems using his dominant hand, it tends to shake and fly about now and again which makes it hard to write. So he has been practicing writing with his right hand and not doing too badly.

We planned our visit to the post office carefully so we didn’t have to be in a long queue with the wheel chair. It was mid morning 30 minutes before lunch so the workers would still be working.
We drove in and found a perfect disabled car space close by. I was even offered help t by people watching me struggle with getting the chair out of the car. When we arrived at the post office, sure enough, we had timed it perfectly, there was only a small queue of five people.

When it was our turn, Jamie wheeled himself up to the counter and said proudly and (loudly) ‘I want to renew my passport please’. The girl at the counter took his photograph, the first one didn’t turn out so well so she took another. When she realized we had a stack of crates in front of us and could barely move the wheelchair she came around to the front of the counter to help us. By this time there was a small crowd. Have you ever noticed when you are in a public place people like to look without appearing to do so. Heaven forbid there anybody should be seen to make eye contact. Finally the photographs were approved of and Jamie had to sign in a very small space on his passport document. He leaned forward and slowly, slowly started to write. ‘You must write inside this square,’ he had been warned. As he wrote the crowd leaned forward as if to give him moral support. Finally it was over and he had made his signature. Alas the last letter of his surname was poking out of the square as if to say ‘let me out of here I want to go and explore. ‘Sorry’, said the post office clerk, you will have to try again. So as Jamie drew in a deep breath the ever growing crowd did the same and ever so slowly leaned forward as Jamie proceeded to write. Triumphantly he called out I think I did it this time. I had said try to leave only small spaces but he thought I meant make small letters and they all looked a bit like spindly ants as they crept along the page. Remembering my idea of pretending I was in a movie when things got hard. I stood up and clapped loudly, the crowd followed suit.
Our excitement didn’t last long. ‘Alas, you will have to go home and try again’. The helpful post office lady advised us. By this time I was thinking we should have just asked if we could mark the space with an X. It was rather disconcerting to see the crowd was now so large the queue was moving out of the door.
Now as we were preparing to leave we found that in front of us was a sea of people who were crowding wheel chair space with parcels, trolleys and prams. A kind Irishman urged us forward, ‘you can do it dearie’ he said. So, lifting my head high I strode forth through the melee presenting the crowds with a small enigmatic smile as the cameras rolled on the next scene. “That has to be a take, I thought to myself, 'I’m sure that was my best role ever.