GOING STRONG

In an excerpt from her poignant memoir, Christa Couture describes how unapologetic boldness became her superpower.

- Christa Couture

Christa Couture knows impossible loss — the loss of her leg to cancer at the age of 12, followed by the loss of two children, then divorce, then another round of cancer. The Indigenous recording artist and broadcaster’s tender and compassionate memoir, How To Lose Everything, chronicles her journey through these losses, to the new beginnings, successful career and, eventually, healthy baby girl on the other side. In this excerpt, Couture learns to walk on a new prosthetic, and describes how she felt when she decided her disability wasn’t something to hide.

“JUST WALK DOWN the stairs. Step overstep. Do it,” she said. Counter to instincts yelling, “YOU WILL FALL, DON’T DO IT,” I lifted my right leg, shifted my weight to my left and felt the knee bend slowly, bearing my weight, lowering me onto the next step. I repeated the motion, astonished, for the remaining four steps and launched myself into my physio’s arms. I had to hug her; the experience was a revelation. My body remembered the sensation of descending stairs. One foot over the other was like looking at long-lost photographs, an ecstatic recollection.

Returning the C-Leg after a month, I felt like I was turning into a pumpkin. I posted a photograph to Facebook saying so, and for a lot of folks in my community, it was the first time they’d realized I didn’t have a leg. It was also, for many, the first time they’d considered walking downstairs as extraordinary. I didn’t expect the response, but as the comments started rolling in, a proposal: Let’s crowdfund a knee!