Outrageous wheelchair message left on plate at NJ restaurant

There are mistakes.

There are really stupid mistakes.

And then there are mistakes that make you stare at them and think, How in the hell did nobody stop this?

lit candles on chocolate cake

According to CBSnews.com a 29-year-old woman named Antonia Sinibaldi was celebrating her birthday with family and friends at Blu On The Hudson in Weehawken. Antonia has used a motorized wheelchair and ventilator for most of her life after suffering a spinal injury as a toddler.

When dessert arrived, the plate was decorated with the words:

“Happy Wheel Chair Birthday.”

I don’t care what the explanation is. That is an absolutely brutal thing for somebody to see on what is supposed to be a happy birthday celebration. And the idiot who did it couldn’t even write wheelchair properly as one word?

The restaurant says “wheelchair” was simply used as an internal reference so employees would know where to deliver the birthday dessert. Somehow, that word wound up on the plate.

a person lighting candles on a cake on a table

I’m sorry, but that explanation doesn’t completely work for me. First of all, what happened to things like ‘table five’ as a reference? Are they also making internal notes like “obese man” or “old hag with big nose?”

At some point, somebody had to write it. Somebody had to see it. Somebody had to carry it out to the table. I highly doubt it was all the same person. And apparently nobody along the way thought, Wait a minute. Maybe we shouldn’t write the word “wheelchair” on this woman’s birthday dessert.

And here’s where I can’t help but put myself in the situation.

I have an autistic son.

Imagine my son sitting at a restaurant celebrating his birthday with his family, and the dessert comes out saying “Happy Autism Birthday.”

Would anybody honestly expect me to shrug and say, “Oh well, somebody must have just misunderstood the ticket”?

shallow focus photography of toddler blowing cake candles

Absolutely not.

Because my son is not his autism. And Antonia is not her wheelchair.

That’s the part that bothers me most.

The restaurant says there was no malicious intent. I believe that’s true. But intent doesn’t magically erase impact.

Antonia said, “I shouldn’t be reminded of something that I already know.”

Exactly.

When you’re celebrating somebody’s birthday, just say Happy Birthday. Their disability doesn’t need to be part of the message.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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