the counselor who came in in a chair — "At the time I declared up…"
At the time I declared up and down I was too disabled to kneel and pray, to give you an idea of where I was at.
Context
The wounded-healer credential offered plainly, mid-interview: the woman running the intake arrived through the same door in the same chair, and her recovery is summed in the resistance she remembers best — declaring herself too disabled to kneel and pray, the exact objection the program hears from everyone and outlasts. Authority here is not distance from the disease but distance travelled through it.