Of course, thinking about it, there were two characters in wheelchairs in that story, not just one.
Jamie mailed me and said he was going to have great difficulty in writing of Nick's passing, but he handled it beautifully.
In the same chapter, he wrote in a memorial to two real-life young lads, one of whom commited suicide because he couldn't handle being gay. (In the story it's the two boys strolling down the beach together along the water's edge.)
Jamie himself was trying to comfort the partner left behind, and with a lot of sympathy posts and mails from supporters he is now coping.
The point that came from all this is not one of "Differences", but where the characters are not 'blonde-haired, blue-eyed gods' they show more love toward each other than just casual sex aquaintances. Love is the keyword in most of these type stories of unusual characers.