ANDRE BEGIN

A few weeks ago, I was running errands in the city, ticking off the many boxes on my to-do list like a champ.

Even though I generally prefer eating at nice sit-down restaurants during big shopping excursions, this time, I didn’t want to break my momentum. I stopped by a grocery store’s salad bar for a quick bite.

As I was leaning over to scoop up some yummy roasted vegetables, out of the blue, I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my left butt cheek. A fellow shopper had just rammed her hand basket into my derriere.

This wasn’t a tap. This wasn’t a graze. This was a full-force collision.

Even though I’m usually pretty understanding when it comes to minor accidents, this one was different. As the polite Canadian that I am, my normal reflex would be to say, “Oh, it’s OK,” but not this time.

How could someone be so distracted or lacking in spatial awareness that they could hit a total stranger that hard? I tried putting myself in her place, thinking of times I was rushed, frazzled, or overwhelmed, but I couldn’t make sense of how or why this happened. Either way, all I gave her was a deep exhale and a disappointed head shake.

When the woman looked back, I think the mortified and pissed look on my face said it all. She apologized profusely.

Despite my shock, I was still clear-headed enough to recognize the potential for some kind of distraction scam. I immediately patted my pockets to make sure my phone, wallet, and keys were present and accounted for. Fortunately, they were.

With only a minor tingling in my hip and a heartfelt apology in my pocket, I was ready to let the incident go and move on with my errands. Nonetheless, I admit that on the way home, a fear of lasting repercussions settled in. With no history of hip problems, I worried this might be the beginning of the end of that lucky streak.

However, in the days that followed, I was surprised that, despite the strong impact, my 60-year-old body didn’t seem to react. There was no bruising. There was no pain. When I did my “joint health” exercises, I felt a minor twinge in the hip, but nothing more. This seemed odd.

A couple of weeks later, I visited my chiropractor for my monthly tune-up. When she asked how the last few weeks went, I told her the story of “The Lady with the Handbasket” and the strange fact that despite the impact, I didn’t experience much in the way of lingering effects.

She then asked me to get on the table, on my stomach, to check things out. No sooner had I gotten on the table than she noticed, “Your right hip is higher than your left. This isn’t the way your hips usually present on the table.” Just for fun, I asked if I could get up and lie on the table again to see if the hips would position differently. I did, and the hips were the same, one higher than the other.

So there was a lingering issue after all.

Nonetheless, after two adjustments, my chiropractor successfully restored my hips to their proper placement with no further twinges to worry me about my future quality of life as a senior citizen.

Several weeks later, I still wonder how someone could be so driven to distraction that they could ram a grocery basket into a stranger. Was it stress? Was she overwhelmed? Did she have a million things on her mind? I admit, I’ve been there before, but not to that point.

All I can do is look back with compassion and empathy, reassure myself that all will be fine, and maybe, out of an abundance of caution, tuck in my butt the next time I’m at the salad bar.

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Sincere thanks for reading!
Have a great day,
André