Despite the deluge of rain this morning, we have had customers in and out of the store all day. Leigh Anne and I have been shelving and re-shelving shoes since 10 o'clock! I finally managed to slip down to the Mount Dora Chamber of Commerce and register Donnelly Euro Footwear in the Annual 4th of July Parade! How exciting! We are planning to ride the red, white, and blue decorated four-wheelers down Donnelly Street with plenty of Ice Pops and Flags for all!

After I returned, I came to the realization that it makes you feel loads better about coming in to work each day when you know you are genuinely helping people.

I had a customer come in, with tears welling in her eyes, explaining her terrible foot, hip, and knee ailments. As it turns out, her doctor misdiagnosed a broken ankle as a "mild sprain", and she had been walking on it for over a year! As you can imagine, this caused a large amount of damage to her ankle and seriously affected her gait altogether.

The issue she had for me to solve was that she had so many shoes in her closet that she could not wear due to the way they made her feet and knees feel. Seeking something to make her uncomfortable shoes more comfortable, she stopped in. So, I sized her, only to discover the insoles she came in wearing were nearly 5 sizes too large! No wonder they were not of any help! We had her size in stock in a 3/4 length Birkenstock Micro-fiber Arch Support and I placed them in her shoes to try. She was noticeably limping less around the store---the arch had helped to re-align her gait.

The main contributor to her knee pain was the fact that her ankle was severely pronating (falling inward as opposed to remaining upright while walking) which was literally forcing her knee to twist with each step.....ouch. As you can imagine, the pain was slowly working itself up to her hips, back, adn even neck. Just one example of how important healthy footwear is for your body.

After discussing several other options for an insole for her, and having a sincere talk about just how many times she had made the wrong decision for her health, I ordered full length Birkenstock Arch Supports that she can place in any of her shoes at home, even the dress shoes. :)