- [Ann] Hi, Jim!
How you doing?
Hi! - [Jim] Hi, sweetheart.
- Turn off the chair.
Okay, hi honey.
(kiss blowing)
Sam's making that coffee.
- [Sam] You take it strong or weak, Jim?
- [Jim] Stronger the better.
- [Sam] Oh, okay.
- [Ann] Make it like you normally make it,
it's always strong.
- Can't have coffee without cake, right?
- [Ann] When I was a kid there was always other kids
taunting me or making fun of me.
I grew up with that a lot, Sam did too,
so I was thrilled to go to my own camp, you know?
- [Jim] Yeah.
- [Ann] Jened was just, it was freeing.
I was always comfortable
and accepted with my disabled friends.
- [Jim] Did you go to any of the camps, Sam?
- [Sam] I really never
considered myself a person of short stature or a dwarf,
and was always just living my life
as whatever, and...
- [Ann] You didn't identify.
- I didn't identify, is I guess the right word, as a dwarf,
and then I took a job in California,
and that year the convention
happened to be in San Francisco.
- [Ann] Yeah.
Little People of America Convention.
(upbeat music)
- I didn't take a room, I was just going to test the water.
So, I drive up and I parked the car,
and then you see one short stature person.
(Ann chuckling)
Then, you see another short stature person,
five short stature person,
ten!
500 to 1,000
short stature people running around.
Children with their parents,
teens running amuck.
All of a sudden you're not isolated in some little town.
One of the first things that's said in the newcomers group,
is don't marry the first woman or guy you meet.
(Ann giggling)
There are a lot of single women,
and there are few available men.
All of a sudden I'm desirable,
this is new to me.
Then, I met Ann.
(soft music)
I was struck by Ann,
she was independent, she was strong-willed.
- [Ann] I was attracted to him,
I like that he was an engineer.
- [Sam] Whenever Ann would come back, I would appear.
At the close of the convention
I asked Ann if we could go out.
- [Ann] He liked the opera and I liked the opera.
- [Sam] And, I would cook for her.
- [Ann] Oh yeah, he'd cook.
And, yeah, I fell for him.
- [Sam] Judy Heumann, of course, knows Ann.
- [Ann] Right, so she wanted to know who I was seeing.
So, she met Sam, who asked Judy,
Judy, am I disabled?
She goes, something like, of course you are Samela.
(Sam giggling)
And then she goes,
come have lunch with me.
- So, we're at a restaurant,
Judy has me in a corner.
"Sam, you're not getting any younger."
- (Ann giggling) - "She's not getting any younger.
What are you waiting for?
You think that something better is going to come along?"
(Ann and Jim chuckling)
You know, "She's not going to wait for you forever."
Okay, Judy, I...
And, then I proposed after that, because Judy had
- a very convincing argument. - (Ann chuckling)
(upbeat music)
- [Ann] I was glad to be with another person
who was short stature.
You have your life experience.
You don't have to explain anything.
You don't have to apologize for anything.
You just, you just be.
- [Sam] Prior to Ann, I lived in an able-bodied world.
Being with Ann, and going places with Ann,
and her involvement in the disability community,
I actually became comfortable with myself as a dwarf.