Embracing Diverse Ways of Living
by Linda Hayman
My story is about the power of difference and embracing diverse ways of living.
About 10 years ago, I attended a coaching course in the UK. When everyone began to arrive, there was the usual buzz around the room as we got to know each other—an easy thing for fellow coaches. One of the newest people to join us arrived in a wheelchair; her name was Heather. As she later told me, Heather was born with no limbs after her mother had taken the anti-morning sickness drug Thalidomide. As the course participants gathered around the coffee and cookies on offer, there were several questions in my mind about how Heather would manage not just with coffee, but with the course itself.
During the following days, I was privileged to get to know Heather much better. Come to find out, she had a wicked sense of humor, had travelled across the US on a Greyhound bus when she was a student, and had competed as an international, equestrian carriage driver. She also had a long career working as a production journalist with a large UK television channel.
I googled Heather’s details before I wrote this story and found out that she had tragically died of ovarian cancer in 2018. During her illness, Heather continued to make a difference, campaigning for the charity Ovacome to raise awareness of the symptoms. A truly inspirational human being
Heather taught me so many things while we were together; about what is possible even when the challenges are extreme, to be aware of my own bias regarding physical ability, and to change my definition of “normal.” To embrace the power of diversity.
You can find out more about her story here.
More about Linda Hayman
Linda holds the designation of Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with the International Coaching Federation and is also a Master Practitioner in Neuro Linguistic Programming. She has successfully collaborated with a diverse range of clients both in the United States and globally, including notable names like Capital One, NASA, Salesforce, IBM, BP, Warner Brothers, Cisco, Chevron, Pfizer, Marriott, Google, and various employees of the US federal government.