Lorenzo Sandoval was an unlikely healer. His chiropractic practice was a room in his house. He only charged one price for everyone. Some sessions took 20 minutes, some 45 minutes and some almost an hour. It did not matter. He had only the one rate. His manipulation was unusual. He did not employ the bone-crunching, joint pushing and neck cracking techniques that most chiropractors used. His simple method was to first massage the area with rubbing alcohol, wintergreen scented rubbing alcohol. If you have never had the privilege to smell this, you are lucky. Alcohol already has a strong scent. With the wintergreen fragrance added it was an assault on the nose. This would be strong enough, Lorenzo would put the bottle in the microwave for a few seconds. This magnified the wintergreen scent to the point to just before gagging. Once past this challenge, Lorenzo would massage the area needed relief for 10 to 20 minutes. When he was satisfied the muscles, connecting tissue and joints were ready, he would apply a slight pressure and, voila, the sound of the body getting into alignment. It was amazing to experience. I went back for years and recommended him to many friends who were always grateful. Lorenzo always charged the one price for every customer.
I can find humor everywhere and Lorenzo’s treatment room offered an opportunity. Over the doorway was a sign that had been hand-painted. At the just the right angle it read, “Trust in Cod.” I always found this amusing to trust in a fish. Of course, the ‘C’ was supposed to be a ‘G’, which makes more sense, but it not as funny.
To add another dimension to this great story and humble man, Lorenzo was blind. He did everything literally, by feel. He was not born blind. He once told me when he could still see how he took an extended trip to India.
