Foot For Thought.

I wrote about my foot related issues in my last post and yesterday I found myself talking about feet with a total stranger and I wanted to share her personal story.

Most of the time I need to buy walking shoes ordered specially online. A lot of the bigger running shoe companies carry something that I can wear but the problem lies in the width of the shoe. I need a 'wide' sized sneaker to accommodate both my orthotic and my bunions. Without the extra width I experience pain from the shoe pressing up against my bunion and it's hard to fit a custom orthotic into a regular width shoe (although not impossible). So most of the time I have to order my wide width runners on the internet because they don't carry them in stores. Just a side note but The Running Room here in Montreal, Quebec has a pretty good selection of widths and I definitely recommend the Pointe Claire location. I have had a wonderful experience with their staff there. As you can imagine finding a good quality shoe that my foot can tolerate since I walk for leisure/exercise can be challenging at times. Finding these same shoes on sale are nearly impossible! Since I do upwards to 12,000 steps a day and most of it is on concrete, my sneakers need to be replaced about three times a year. It's not that the soles wear out but the support just doesn't feel the same anymore. I spend a lot of money on shoes! If it's not sneakers then it's a dress shoe or boot that will accommodate my orthotics as well. At the end of this post I will include links to a company here in Montreal that makes just that kind of shoe. Be warned, they do not come cheap! All of these shoes add up and recently I discovered I had three pairs of runners that I wasn't wearing so I decided to sell them. You know make a little of that money back. A note about selling: I hate it! People who don't show up, people who lowball offer you (not even close to a reasonable offer) and people who randomly send mean messages for no reason at all! Selling is my last resort and why I decided it would be a good idea to try to sell my shoes, I have no idea! I'd like to believe that it was meant to be; I was meant to meet the lady that came to buy the shoes. Here's her story.

I was expecting a much younger buyer. Why? I have no clue, it's not like I had checked out her profile picture but for some reason our interactions had led me to believe that she was in her thirties. When she got here she looked like she was in her early sixties. She had a noticeable laboured gait and a definite air of prestige. After talking to her I found out she was from Europe, France precisely and in retrospect I should have realized it. She had this understated elegance to her that screamed 'European!' I invited her in to sit on our entryway bench to try on the sneakers and she proceeds to tell me the story that led to her foot condition. She too wore orthotics but hers were a result of a childhood disease; polio. This spunky and vibrant women wasn't in her early sixties at all but closer to eighty! To say that I didn't believe her was an understatement! She did NOT look her age! Born in 1945 in France her small village was hit by a wave of polio when she was but five years old. She lived to tell the tale but was left crippled by the disease. The doctor told her mom that she would never walk again and she clearly remembers hearing that to this day. She made a resolve that she would indeed walk again and that she did! Apparently her grandmother fainted when she saw her take her first steps, she believed her to be a ghost! Walking again didn't come without issues though. The polio had left her with a deformed leg and foot. I admired how she told her story very matter-of-factly but something touched my soul. Here was this lady who had lived through the polio epidemic and came out on the other side of it so warm and open to sharing her experiences. Polio killed and/or paralyzed half a million people a year worldwide at its peak in the 1940's and 50's. HALF A MILLION PEOPLE, A YEAR! I still remember my mom telling me stories about people she went to school with in the 1960's who had contracted polio in the 50's and who had lasting deformities. A vaccine for polio wasn't available to the world until the mid 1950's and it drastically changed the course of history. This beautiful soul in front of me didn't have access to the vaccine in 1950 when she would have been only five years old. Yet here she was articulating all the complex emotions that must have been linked to her disease in such a sophisticated manner. We sat for the better part of an hour talking about the annoyance of spending a ton of money on shoes and some of the inconveniences of having to wear orthotics. Let me make this clear, my foot issues and hers are not the same. I am not trying to compare our stories or claim that I understand what she must have gone through. However somewhere in the sharing of our shoe related woes there was an understanding; a camaraderie. She was engaging and a gifted storyteller. My husband joined the conversation and eventually two of my kids did as well. There was something so special about this woman whom was really a complete stranger, sharing her life story with us. My wish is that my kids will never forget that interaction.

So why share her story on a chronic pain blog? I'm sure she had lasting pain from polio but we never talked about it. I never told her my story either. My motivation for sharing was that our collective experiences have something in common which in turn everyone has to some degree. Adversity. We have all experienced difficulties in our lives. From childhood diseases to lasting pain to poverty and everything in between. We all have a story. A personal anecdote about life's challenging times. Sometimes I think we try to gloss over the stories, maybe not wanting to burden people or maybe for fear of sharing our vulnerabilities. This is the reason that I continue to write this blog. To be vulnerable. To share the deepest, darkest parts of my pain with the world. Not in hopes of being pitied but rather to let other people know that they are not alone. Our shared experiences, even the bad ones bind us together. I may not have experienced polio but for that hour she gave me the honour of stepping into her shoes (no pun intended). She did end up buying the shoes. They fit her orthotics and had a flat sole that she required for her condition. Had I not made a sale that day I would have been richer nonetheless. Richer from her wisdom and certainly richer with the positive attitude that she exuded despite the hand that she had been dealt. I will forever carry that with me.

* As promised here is the link to the Israeli shoe company that has a store here in Montreal and can be found online too. They make good quality dress shoes, boots and even sandals (a lot of them leather) that accommodate custom orthotics.