Clare and I were having dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings this past weekend when I told her that my oldest daughter has been experiencing excruciating pain from a problem that involved her clavicle being separated from her shoulder. Clare empathized and told me that she too had experienced the same problem years ago.
Curious, I wanted to know, "How did it happen?"
Clare was uncertain about how the separation occurred. She had always attributed the separation to one of her pregnancies when she felt so much pain she could only guess that the weight of her belly had been responsible for pulling her clavicle away from her shoulder.
Because of the relentless pain, though, Clare made an appointment to see a doctor who took an x-ray and showed Clare the results of her x-ray. The separation was so immediately obvious, it surprised Clare. I told her that Keeley, too, was surprised by how obvious the separation showed in her x-rays.
While the memory of that long-ago time blossomed in her mind, Clare suddenly cocked her head to one side as if another related memory had just slammed into her brain. Her face filled with a sense of wonder, she exclaimed, "I think I know how it happened! It must have been that time I got hit by a truck!"
Whoa! Wait! What? I, who am not at all capable of repressing laughter, exploded with it (though I did apologize to Clare for laughing at her expense), but I had to know, "How could you not remember being hit by a truck?"
With her surprising revelation, Clare detailed the event. She was 18 and walking to the train after work. She was also wearing high heels. When the snow storm hit she was paying such close attention to the snow under her feet that when a truck appeared suddenly and knocked her down, she blacked out. She awoke in the back of the truck with about 50 onlookers who wondered if she might be in a coma. Nobody called 911 back then (it didn't exist), and, more embarrassed than hurt, Clare got up and just walked away.
Years later she had 5 children, one of whom she blamed for the pain in her shoulder when she was pregnant with her. Not until this past weekend did she realize that the pain was actually caused by a truck hitting her.
Clare is now 73 years old and in better shape than some 20-year-olds I've seen. The pain in her shoulder is gone, and her memories just keep getting funnier (to me).
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