Sheilaclapkin's Blog;

Behold the hugh hill she has climbed

I realize how far I still have to go in life. Even ageing as I once thought was so bad, isn’t as bad as it is going to get. Look at this lady literally pulling her body step by step up a rather steep hill that had my traveling partners and me a huffing and a puffing. I value this woman and her struggles. I value my life, my aches and pains have been greatly ease by the sight of this gorgeous beautiful effort of this woman.  Once I caught up to her, I tried to smile and say a few words to her, but she could not verbally communicate because of a huge language barrier as well as a cultural divide.   I have spent time contemplating the beautiful non-verbal communications I got throughout a number of days after my encounter with the woman in the photo.

Smiles are few and far between from others UNLESS you initiate the smile.

Today was the first day out on the travel trail, so to speak. A lovely lady traveling with her husband and son, exited the bus and fell hard on the white cobblestones.  She smashed her face and was bleeding profusely, but I saw how she fell and it was on her shoulder. As it turns out, she has broken her right shoulder in three places and will require surgery at some point in time. She insists on continuing with the trip. Oh gosh, she does not know how much pain she will be in, or does she. We met just the night before this happened, but I knew immediately I liked her and we laughed a lot.  Hope we all can help her to laugh a lot more.  What happened to her I have seen on three prior trips and it scares me so much.  All of the previous falling victims went home immediately, so this lady, by the way her name is Charlotte has the courage of her convictions.  I worry about falling the entire time on or not on a trip and am extra diligent. I noticed for the rest of the day we all were cognizant of the fact we need to be so, so careful and even then, we are all vulnerable.

This event made me wonder how many times my lady on the crutches has fallen and has anyone helped her?  Is she able to get up on her own?  She obviously has not given up. She hasn’t let her infirmities stop her.