Matt Lafleur,  —

My teacher and my best friend’s mom talked amid the gaggle of parents picking up their kids from middle school. I was within hearing distance as they spoke, but neither one noticed. I remember my teacher remarking that the woman’s son and I used to do…

I saw one of my middle school teachers the other day. Two decades have passed since I was in her religion class. She saw Zeego, my service dog, as he curiously sniffed around the occupational therapy clinic where my friend Will works.

The sky turned pinkish and the clouds became bright blue as the Louisiana sun reached its western-most point and began to retreat from this summer day. It was five years ago. My mom’s friends had brought their 7-year-old nephew over to swim. I was playing…

I was the weird kid who asked my mom to fix me a plate of spinach as an after-school snack. Most of my friends only ate spinach to appease their parents and earn the right to dessert. Don’t get me wrong: I love cookies and cakes probably more than most…

My physical therapist Kevin pushed a sofa to the middle of the room. I positioned my wheelchair next to it and transferred onto the soft cushions. Sitting there, I rolled my wheelchair — my safety net — away from me. It’s strange being away from my chair since it’s been…

I looked around and grinned. Our individual values are upheld by the people with whom we surround ourselves, and that made it incredible to be there. The corner office on the 20th floor of a building in downtown Philly was a far cry from home. The…

Before I knew it, I was face down on the tiled floor. When I started to fall forward, seated in the handicapped-accessible shower, my arms made a last-ditch effort to grab onto the bench.  This plan failed. Without my arms to impede my crash, my forehead…

I was grateful to be around my large extended family at our yearly Christmas party. Zeego, unleashed in the huge building where the festivities took place, sniffed beneath the rows of white plastic tables. I had hoped that he would bring some holiday…

I learned a new word this year: “mFARS,” which stands for the modified Friedreich’s Ataxia Rating Scale. The mFARS measures the overall effect of Friedreich’s ataxia (FA), rating abilities such as upper body function, lower body function, speaking, and swallowing.  Unaffected functioning scores a zero on…

“The Zeego Tales” track the wonders of my life with my service dog, Zeego. The day Zeego decided to make a break for it, the autumn air was unseasonably warm. I should have noticed that something strange was about to happen. But in the moment, I expected an…