My dad was hospitalized following a severe stroke. He was paralyzed and blind on the right side and moreover aphasic (loss of speech).

Of course, he had become incontinent.

Coming to visit him, I realize that he has relieved himself in his diaper.

He was in a specialist department, the fight against bedsores was an important point, especially since he was diabetic and diabetic wounds deserve increased care because they heal very difficultly. In addition, a functional rehabilitation service absolutely does not know how to manage the balance of diabetes and my father alternated between severe hypoglycemia and severe hyperglycemia!

It was therefore essential that these wounds not macerate in urine or stool.

I question him and he makes me understand that he has been in this situation since the morning. Already 5 or 6 hours in the excrement!

A nurse comes by and I ask her nicely if it is possible to change my father?

She sent me for a walk properly!

At the time, I was very impulsive, especially if there was an injustice or a serious breach! I literally went off the rails.

Believe me, my father was changed and he never macerated again!

A few days later, the doctor apologized to my mother for this breach and the nurse never took care of my dad again.

I saw her again in another department years later. She was charming… with me!

It's not something I've personally seen a plumber do but it's a story that some of you may be interested in.

In the early 1960s, I had an acquaintance who was an apprentice plumber. He told me that when he was living in London, his company was hired to work at Buckingham Palace, the Queen's residence in London. Of course, we asked him how it was and he mumbled something about how he didn't really see the place as the job they had to do was in the royal bathrooms. "Yeah, well, we think you were never there."

"Oh, I was there - and I can prove it. While working in the Queen's chambers, I took the opportunity to carve was here' under her bed.

So, Your Majesty, if you're on Quora, can you do something for me before I go to bed tonight? Lie on the floor, look under the bed and let me know if was really there?

A long time ago when I was young and still discovering myself, I worked in a grocery store as a cashier and there was a young man slightly older than me who was eyeing me and me too. At each shift we had our little game of seduction, exchanged glances, little winks, and so on.

One evening when I was closing the store, I was working with him and a few other people. I asked him to get something from the storage behind the store. By the time he came back I was leaving for my break and I met him behind. That's when we kissed with great passion like two young new lovers.

You will say that there is nothing very inappropriate… but I forgot to mention that it was the girlfriend of this guy who replaced me at my checkout during my break when I was kissing his boyfriend in the "backstory".

When the 747 was still very frequently used, the central seating arrangement consisted of 4 neighboring seats. We are in the 2nd row of the so-called "sardine" cabin. I'm seated center left, my wife on the left side of the aisle; next to me, center right, a man whose girlfriend is on the right side of the aisle. She is therefore the opposite of my wife.
When the flight has reached its cruising speed, we hear the cabin crew preparing the meal in the kitchen which is just in front of us. We smell the good smells of meals being reheated. It whets our appetite. So, my neighbor's companion spreads the small blanket offered by the airline over them both. And there, without really hiding, she begins to masturbate under the very thin screen: his gestures are very obvious under the blanket. I discreetly show the merry-go-round to my wife. She replies with a smile that I don't have the slightest chance of benefiting from the same preferential treatment as my neighbor! On the right side of the driveway, another couple spotted the carousel as well, and obviously, the husband is no luckier than me!!! A young hostess comes out of the kitchen with the trolley and goes to the end of the aisle to distribute the meals. The neighbor has not changed pace and she leans towards my companion to lick his ear (at least, it seems to me!). He growls and turns his head to kiss her full on the mouth. They both fidget, visibly very excited. I took my wife's hand in mine and I squeeze it harder and harder as she giggled and laughs at me! She whispers in my ear: "Pleasure for the eyes only my And, at this precise moment, the neighbor plunges her head under the blanket! It is obvious that she is satisfying her companion. It happens quickly; she emerges with shiny lips, sporting a devilish smile! They hug each other lovingly. They seem to whisper tender words to each other. When the young hostess, who has backed up the aisle to us, comes up to them offering them the choice of the menu, the young woman replies with a devilish smile: "No thank you! I had everything I needed!" !!! What a beautiful memory!

Flight from Bangkok. I arrive at the airport about 1h15 before the flight, I'm late because of a traffic jam.

I ran to check-in. Since I was too late, they couldn't check me in electronically anymore. The girl made me a boarding pass in my hand. Nice.

Run to get to safety. Find a person, make him understand that I'm late because of a traffic jam. She will kindly make me pass in front of everyone. Nice.

Passport control at immigration, again I manage to find an employee who arranges with a family to get me through very quickly.

I find myself just after the counters, I look at my ticket to know the door. Then I look at the signs to find out in which direction to go. My port is 540 meters away says the sign.

It was at this precise moment that I heard a message coming out of the loudspeakers of the place: The last call for…and that's the name I heard.

It's strange the unsuspected athletic abilities that one can have at a time like this. I ran as fast as I could and….I got there. I was able to get on the plane.

I arrive at my seat, the person who was next to me asks me, with a slightly sly air: Are you late?

At all, I love running for 500 meters, arriving sweaty and out of breath for a 12-hour flight…

On a very busy highway near Toronto, I stop for a short break. I chat with some people then I put my handbag on the bench next to me.

I take the road again. Suddenly, a vision of horror assails him! I can clearly see my forgotten purse on the bench in plain sight. Immediately, as usual, I surround this damn handbag with a very thick white light, thus protecting it from all eyes. But now it's been 25 minutes since I left the place! I go back on my steps straight away! I head to the place where I ordered a coffee and I'm told that someone brought a leather bag back to the restaurant reception. I run to the place and right next to the cashier is…my bag! There is absolutely nothing missing. After warmly thanking the person who watched it, I send an ocean of gratitude to the person who reported it! That's almost always how it goes.

My moral is this: never attribute to yourself anything that does not belong to you because the Boomerang Law will apply! I have lost count of the things I have found but the most beautiful story is when I found a ring with a huge emerald. I love emeralds. I put it on my finger. It suited me perfectly. I didn't think for a moment of keeping it. Went to the owner of the rest and told him that if anyone called to see if we had found a certain object to call my cell number. I was on a trip again and while I was on a ferry a woman called me. I ask her for a description of the item and it was hers.

When she returned to Montreal a few days later, she came to my house to pick up her ring, explaining to me that her dying mother had put this ring on her finger before she died. Telling me her story she burst into tears. You never know the value of things and I dare to believe that this story and all the others that followed carry with them the famous boomerang effect!

A little seed.

I'm not sure what to call it - the little seed of hope maybe. It's not the exact word but I can't find another one. This little seed, arrived discreetly, without being noticed, I don't know from where or why, but it doesn't leave me anymore and I don't leave it anymore.

Of course, she didn't make all my fears disappear with the wave of a magic wand, but at least I'm not afraid of my fears anymore, and that's good enough.

She tells me things I had never heard before: that I am capable, that I have strength, and even endurance. That I'm worth more than a bag of peanuts. That failures are not defeats. That trials are inevitable. May each grain of sand make the dune.

Of course, sometimes she doesn't speak very loudly, and sometimes she's even silent, but I know she's there, this little seed, and I keep it preciously in my pocket.

When people tell me that they are helpless in the face of certain life experiences and that they only dream of one thing, that of being brave, I ask them these 2 questions: do you think that one day you will be brave like that, snapping your fingers in the face of this situation? Or on the contrary, will you become courageous because you live a situation that asks you to show courage?

Courage comes from trusting in your ability to handle a situation. Courage comes when you show discernment and detachment in the face of an experience, and listen to it no matter what. It doesn't take much life experience to be brave. Keeping detachment from a person who wants to overwhelm us is courage. And to achieve this detachment, it is an inner work that must take place: that of self-confidence. The more confidence you have in yourself and your abilities, the more courageous you will be because you will handle situations with detachment and confidence, and you will not succumb to the fear of others or your own fear, because you will have learned to release some through your own inner work :)

Let's take the definitions first:

courage: Energy and strength of will manifested in the face of more or less difficult work.

cowardice: Lack of moral courage, dignity, loyalty (of a person and p. met on. of his behavior) which leads to base, vile or cruel actions (especially towards a weaker person).

So yes and no.

I believe that one cannot be courageous in all areas. If we are afraid, we cannot show courage in the face of danger. On the other hand, one can be courageous in one's work, one's way of taking care of one's loved ones...

Cowardice, I think, is something else. I understand this as the denial of one's responsibilities to the detriment of others, on a voluntary basis.

As for purely cultural shock, I would say the architecture of cities. The type of construction in France is automatically identified as being a city, a “new town”, which very much resembles the buildings that in Brazil are built for the more affluent branches of the middle class. The very fact of grouping towers and moving them away from the heart of towns exists for me not to house the underprivileged classes but to allow the upper-middle-class not to mix (in general the whole is surrounded by railings and the access is controlled by a gatehouse). So at home, part of the well-to-do population voluntarily “goes into the Guetto” (with the access of course to all the comforts, whereas here it's a forced distancing. But the visual references are the same, which was very confusing.

So I had trouble understanding how access to the urban space is organized here.