"Your Dad Was A Giant"

 One podcast that was extra memorable for me was StoryCorp's "Your Dad Was A Giant".  A mother recalls to her daughter the story of her and her husband (the girl's father) falling in love.  The couple met at a nursing home, where the father was living after an accident in his early 20's that left him quadriplegic.  The mother, a nurse at the nursing home, fell in love with him despite his handicap, telling her suspicious mother that she "wants to marry him and have kids" not "just be his nurse...his partner".  The couple successfully adopt children, their daughter 'Meagan' being the receiving end of the mom's narration.  After a social worker told the couple they would never make good parents because of the father's wheelchair, the father takes pride when he later sees the social worker at a gas station and gets to introduce her to his four year old daughter.  The story's essence centers around his disability being unsuccessful at "making him less of a man", because especially with his standing height being 6'5, his presence is hugely felt and respected.  

As a listener, I felt as though I was sitting alongside the mother and daughter's conversation.  The storytelling was empathetic and human, just as it would be if your own mother shared this emotional telling with you.  Alongside the audio was a captivating animation that showed a few things that would otherwise be hard to orally describe; for example, the mother and daughter at one point are tiny and sitting on the dad’s feet in his wheelchair.  This expresses how big they see their dad, insinuating respect.  This story was meaningful to me because it's a story of what seems traumatic - a healthy 20 year old becoming quadriplegic - it's turned to a heartwarming love story of advocacy and admiration.  I think it's a good reminder for everyone that exterior traits are unimportant compared to how you treat people/who you are as a person.