Walmart

How a film changed my attitude

I’ve been to Walmart once. I didn’t like it; I didn’t like the very aged man at the door watching us walk in. He could have used a chair. I didn’t like the vibe, the energy. I left.
Months later, I needed a bathtub rug, something that I could stand on after a shower. Of course, every ad popped up.
There was one for $6.00, same-day delivery, guaranteed non-slip. That fit the bill, except it was from Walmart.
But, being the semi-priveleged woman I am, I settled. I ordered it, and it was at my door within hours.
The plastic bag it was in said non-slip. The bottom of the piece was stamped ‘non-slid’ more than once.
I laid it out, and about an hour later, I took a shower.
My left foot gingerly stepped on the bath rug. When my right foot stepped out of the tub, the rug moved.
My home is over one hundred years old, and the bathroom is small.
I went down, breaking two ribs on the toilet rim and smashing my head on the horrid heat-wasting baseboard heater. Vertigo immediately set in.
I couldn’t get up. I was kind of folded, squished, and the room was spinning.
There I was scrunched, dizzy, and in a lot of pain.
One of the most embarrassing moments of my life was calling my daughter to help me up. Naked, wet, and very dizzy.
She helped me dress and drove me to my doctor. I went down my stairs on my butt, with the help of my daughter.
My doctor said the vertigo could last a day or the rest of my life. She wrote a prescription and made arrangements for a cat scan.
The furniture was rearranged so I had something to hang on to when I very slowly walked to the loo. I had relocated to the sofa as it is closer to the bathroom & refrigerator. Both are very important, as I would be alone.
The next day, I was playing the pitty party piano. When I turned my head, the vertigo became worse.
I couldn’t read, but I could lose myself in the wide screen.
The remote fell on the floor, but I was unable to look down to pick it up.
That’s how I met “The Professor”. It came on without my help. I couldn’t change the channel. I had wanted to be a professor, so I watched.
I highly recommend this film.
No one knows when we’re going to die. It could be in years, or it could be in the next millisecond. I watched the film three times. I closed my eyes and considered what I would do if I were in his position. I found I could handle the vertigo; I believed it would become less severe. If the Professor could handle his illness, I could handle vertigo.
Professor Richard Brown is a good man and handles his fate with strength and consideration for others.
My self-pity and fear were gone.
In these times, I’m extremely grateful for The Professor.
With the violence that surrounds us, with the medical problems growing and medical care becoming more expensive and harder to get, watch it.