Still Got It
That baby was perfectly safe with me (probably)
I was standing on some steps on the edge of the Old Town farmer’s market, leaning against a brick wall and waiting for my wife when a woman pushed a large baby stroller to the bottom step and stopped. The woman considered her options and then saw me and came over. I’m 6-foot 6-inches tall and fairly wide so I wasn’t surprised she asked me if I could lift the back of the stroller while her mother pulled on the front. There was one child and several packages and purses stuffed in the carriage and another child in the woman’s arms. I said “sure” and started walking past her to grab the carriage.
Now, I look fit standing still, but 17 years with Parkinson’s Disease has altered my gait a bit. I don’t know if it was the way I walked or the cane that was leaning against the wall behind me that alarmed her, but she immediately jumped in front of me and withdrew her request, without wanting to mention why she now thought she had picked the wrong man for the job. “No, no, never mind, I’ll get it,” she stammered, but I had already moved around her and grabbed the stroller by a bar at the bottom. Her mother, seeing me, began pulling and I lifted it up the wide stairs, while the woman let out one last defeated sort of “no.”
In truth, I stumbled just a bit before recovering quickly and setting the stroller down at the top of the stairs. I know she was trying to protect the child, but there was no danger. As Tennyson wrote:
“Tho’ much is taken, much abides;
and tho’ we are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are; Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will.”
And I can still handle a gd stroller.
