PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

My feet seemed to be nailed to the floor. My first thought was that I had lost the use of my lower legs and feet. Occasionally I would feel the pain deep in the middle of my Achilles tendon. Without my walking stick, I am sure that I would have fallen a dozen times or more. I give the Doctors credit they have tried many remedies but none seem to work on me.

A week ago I did fall in a busy street. Many helping hands lifted me back onto my feet and I stood for a few moments. Who knows perhaps the fall had brought on an attack of shock. I was definitely not my usual self. From a small shop whose window acted as a backrest an elderly woman came out and asked me to come in and have seat for a while. I gratefully accepted and was shown into a comfortable room behind the shop. The armchair was out of this world I couldn’t ever remember sitting in such a comfortable seat not in all of my long life.

Another small surprise the elderly woman brought me in a cup of hot sweet tea. I felt definitely refreshed. What happened next I cannot remember. I later had the feeling that the tea must have been drugged. The elderly woman must have had some strong hands helping her. Someone had stripped me of all my clothes. I had been bathed from head to toes. My Achilles tendons on both legs had been treated. I felt not even a protesting twinge from either leg. The best part was to come. I was no longer in that more than comfortable armchair but in my own home sitting in my armchair. What had that elderly woman put in my cup of hot sweet? What ever it was I decided to go back and thank her for curing me of my very weak Achilles tendons. The next day armed with my trusty walking stick I walked up and down that familiar street. There was no shop, no comfortable armchair and the elderly woman was nowhere to be seen. Did I, I asked myself dream that I had been asked in and given a cup of hot sweet tea. Was this some form of shock hallucination? No I told myself; how would that explain the lack of pain in both legs. Without help the elderly woman would have been too frail to undress me, put me into a bath and the ointment or whatever it was that she used on my legs gave off a sweetish smell for two weeks and thank goodness the Achilles tendons are both well, allowing me to walk without a stick. Later I met another Patient that I met while attending the special exercises that we were encouraged to do for our Achilles complaints. He mentioned the fact that I did not use a walking stick any more. I told him about my experience with the elderly woman. He waited until I finished my story. Taking a small jar from his pocket he opened it and I smelt the sweet smell of that very same ointment that had been used on my legs. His story was practically the same as my own. He too had fallen. The only difference was his shop was a tailors shop and his Good Samaritan was an elderly man. He too went back to thank for the help given to him. He too could find no shop, no not even a tailors shop if you at some time have this ageing complaint do not give up hope perhaps you too will meet either an elderly lady or an ageing Tailor. Another tale from your scribbler Bern.