We’ve all seen websites dedicated to exposing how ramped mental illness is amongst Walmart shoppers. We’ve seen an old man dressed like the tooth fairy, Santa Clause who really let himself go and a grandmother dressed in leather who was most surely packing heat. What we haven’t seen is a normal person at Walmart. I am on a quest to find just one normal Walmart shopper. I know this person is out there. I will find them and when I do I believe they should sit down for an interview on The Today Show or even Nancy Grace and tell us how they’ve managed to keep their sanity amongst crazy shoppers.
I swear this is all true…….
Yesterday on my regular trip I thought I found this normal person. An older gentleman rolled past me in one of those carts for the infirm and asked me if I knew where sleeping aides are. I began to help him with his search and realized he was a nice old man. He also seemed a tad bit lonely so I asked him about this new sleep aide he was looking for. He began to tell me he has diabetes and that for a long time he took NyQuil to sleep but it messed up his liver. He started taking it so much that he became addicted to it. In a heart felt moment he told me how he’d never taken a drug in his entire life. He’d always played it straight and never, ever expected to see himself being weened off of something as simple as over the counter medication.
I could see in his eyes he was hurt by it so I offered a bit of personal information about myself. I told him I understood how worrisome taking meds can be because I live with chronic pain and have to take pain meds from time to time. He said what I’ve been saying for a long time, “Pain changes you. It makes you someone you’re not.” I shook my head in agreement. He then told me it also opens you up to roads you never thought you’d travel down. It takes you places “other” people go then there you are, addicted. One minute you’re okay the next you’ve got a doctor helping you back on your feet from a train wreck you never saw coming.
He was quite for a second, obviously hurting. I shook my head in grief and understanding. He then said, “You have chronic pain? I said yes. He said, “You know where that comes from don’t you?” I said, “Yeah, I have Lupus and Fibromyalsia” He said, “No. It comes from SATAN” He then he rolled off in his mini-handicapped mobile.
And so the search continues for a normal Walmart shopper.
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