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Four years later, Knapp Wilkinson can still recall with stunning accuracy what happened that day she went to Walmart. She’d been feeling weak that day, and in a lot of pain, so when she entered the store, she’d opted to get a motorized cart to get around the store.
“I went to get a case soda for my husband (He drinks this stuff by the gallons) and I turn and tried to grap [sic] a case off the shelf and the cart tipped,” she recalled in a statement she wrote online.
"I thought I saw a flash of light and heard some young girls giggling. I thought nothing of it cause I am use to hearing people make fun of me or saying snide remarks. It was nothing new."
Wilkinson thought little of this interaction, until a couple months later, when the photo of her accident made its way onto the Internet via Reddit and People of Walmart, an online forum where Internet users can share their experiences shopping at the store.
Someone had turned the photo, documenting Wilkinson’s fall into a rude meme, exacerbating her already existing anxiety and PTSD conditions.
Contrary to what the teenagers and hundreds of other people on the Internet might see and assume of the photo, Wilkinson’s personal story doesn’t line up with any of that.
Wilkinson suffers from spondylolisthesis, a condition where the vertebrae in her back fail to line up properly. The discs can slip onto the one below it, causing pain and nerve pinching.
This condition makes it more likely for Wilkinson to fall when she walks, which is already a difficult activity in and of itself. On top of that, Wilkinson also suffers from mental health issues as an effect of this condition.
On the day the photo had been taken, Wilkinson had been experiencing “a lot of pain and weakness.” She’d gotten a motorized cart to help her get around because she simply couldn’t bring herself to walk that much because of this medical condition.
Now, four years later, Wilkinson is still riding out the effects of being made into a meme.
She said she’s grateful her face never made it into the original photo – but the trauma she experienced from being targeted by this rude meme is something she doesn’t want anyone else to go through. That’s why she’s speaking out now.
Recently, Wilkinson wrote a lengthy response to the makers of the meme and an open letter to anyone who might feel inclined to make fun of obese individuals.
“The worst thing about this photo is that people think a fat woman tipped over a cart because she was too lazy to get out of the cart to get the case of soda,” she wrote as the third sentence of her statement on Quora.
Wilkinson continued by explaining her medical condition and saying that she’d become obese over the years because she’d initially coped with her physical struggle by eating her emotions. Now, she’s since joined a gym and is learning to regain her health – but everything is still a battle for her.
Although much time has passed since the taking of the photo and the creation of this particular meme, Wilkinson refuses to let up because she doesn’t want anyone else to suffer like she did.
“The reason I am sharing this is because people think it is funny to laugh at people with disabilities. You can not see my disabilities but they are there and they are REAL,” she wrote.
“[N]ext time you see photos making fun of people just remember you know nothing about these people or the struggles they face everyday. It is never just harmless fun to laugh at someone,” she continued.
Following these sentences, Wilkinson added her own photos of herself — in hopes of proving to the rest of the world that she is, in spite of her weight or her condition, or even the fact that she’d fallen out of a motorized cart at Walmart — that she is, like everyone else, a normal person.
Her statement has been met with many positive, encouraging responses from people all over the world giving her their moral support.
In an edit following the initial publishing of this statement, Wilkinson added that she’s not condoning obesity or asking for pity, but that she simply wants herself and everyone else to be afforded “compassion, understanding, and respect as a fellow human being.”
