How this woman broke her shoulder in Nashville.

A few weeks ago, I struck a conversation with a woman while filling her coffee cup at Panera Bread. 

I stood behind her for a few seconds with my empty cup in my hand, waiting for her to fill her cup, put a lid on it, and be on her way. 

I began to notice she was fumbling the lid and cup so I gave her a closer look. I then saw what I hadn’t noticed at first. She was wearing a sling on her left arm which was making it difficult for her to hold the cup and arrange the lid the way she wanted it. For fear of overstepping boundaries, I gave her a few more moments before stepping in. 

I looked at her and said, “I imagine you’re fully capable of doing that yourself but I’d be happy to help if you want.”

She looked back at me, exhaled, and said “Oh, that’d be wonderful. Would you please?” 

I fastened it all together then handed it over to her. I filled my cup with coffee and she stood beside me for a moment before telling me how she had no idea how she was going to do anything with that stupid sling around her neck. 

“How’d you get it?” I asked. 

She paused for a moment then replied, “You probably don’t wanna know.”

“I mean, I do but if you don’t feel like talking about it that’s quite alright with me.” I said. 

“It’s quite embarrassing, really.” she said. 

It turns out, the woman who, if I had to guess, was in her late 60’s or early 70’s was in town on a solo trip. She told me she hadn’t been to Nashville in over 30 years and wanted to re-visit many of the places she’d been when she last visited. She also wanted to do some touring of the country music exhibits and other museums. So she booked a flight and an Airbnb for 4 days.

“The Airbnb looked so nice on the website. I mean beautiful, really. I still can’t believe it.” she said. “And don’t get me wrong, the actual property itself IS beautiful. But the neighborhood where it’s located is not.”

I’ve found this to be one of the unexpected negative sides to staying in an Airbnb. Apparently, it happens often enough that I’ve heard several unfortunate stores about it. It’s something that I think people forget to consider when booking Airbnb. People who make Airbnb their business will find cheap properties in dangerous neighborhoods, slap a few coats of paint on them, and charge premium prices to some unexpecting, unlucky trip-goer in search of a quick cash grab. And to be fair to these savvy suits, many people don’t actually care where their Airbnb is located. Many don’t spend enough time in the property for it to matter all that much. 

But this woman’s story was different.

She went on to tell me how the night before we’d met, she was touring downtown and because it was so nice outside, she’d decided to walk back to her Airbnb while it was still daylight. Unfortunatley, she’d underestimated how long it’d take her to get back to her Airbnb and so on her return walk, night began to fall. As night fell, she felt increasingly uncomfortable in the area of town she’d been walking in and as a result she started jogging a bit out of fear and a bit out of panic.

“You might think I’m being dramatic but I’m telling you, the area of town I was in was bad. People were yelling at me. They knew I was unfamiliar with where I was at. Looking back on it, I know it was a stupid idea to start jogging but it was a natural reaction to how scared I was.” she said.

As she was jogging, she paid less attention to the ground in front of her. She couldn’t see the uneven part in the pavement so she tripped and fell to the ground. She landed on the street where she lost her glasses and instantly knew she was hurt. She picked up her belongings, got back to her feet, and reached for her phone to call an ambulance.

“I knew something was seriously wrong and there was no way I could’ve made it all the way back to my Airbnb in the condition I was in,” she said.  “I spent the entire night in the hospital, I have a broken shoulder and now I have to rely on kind young men like you to help me get a cup of coffee,” she said, with a smile. 

“Damn. Sorry I asked.” I joked, with a smile.

“It’s ok. I’m not in that much pain, really. I’m just mostly worried about how I’m going to explain this to my kids. They told me not to come here by myself because they were worried something would happen to me but I assured them I’d be fine. I hate it when they’re right.” 

“You know what they say… Kids always know best” I said. 

“Right? Now I’ll never hear the end of it. As if they didn’t already make fun of me enough!” she said.

“If it makes you feel any better, my siblings and I would treat our mom the same way. In fact, this sounds like something that my mom would do and, you’re right, we’d never let her hear the end of it. As long as you know that we’re only making fun of you because we love you, then everything else will be okay.” I said.

And so, that’s the story of how the woman in front of me ended up in a sling.

Now, you’re probably wondering why I’m telling you this story. 

If you were lucky enough to be my sister, you’d get to hear me tell you stories like this all the time. So much so that I’m not sure she even listens to them anymore. 

She’s convinced I’m the only person in the world who gets into conversations like this as often as I do. I’m pretty sure she finds it both weird and oddly entertaining.

And to be fair, she’s kinda got a point. 

More than anyone else I know, I seek conversations with complete strangers where I find myself  talking about the most random things. 

Sometimes those conversations lead me down paths that otherwise I’d never gone down and sometimes I find myself in predicaments that would’ve been completely avoided had I just kept my mouth shut.

But I just can’t keep myself from the allure of a conversation with a stranger.

The possibilities are endless.

And that’s probably exactly why I do it. 

Life, otherwise, is just too boring.