I can empathize here, too. Perhaps it will happen less now that I’m on the wrong side of sixty, but I’ve certainly been hassled by security people for a perfectly ordinary walking stick, needed for a knee injury. At the time, they just couldn’t believe that an apparently fit 45-year-old would need one, and somehow, once they executed the retaliatory strip search and discovered the knee brace and compression bandage, they were so caught up in confirmation bias that they were wondering why I didn’t have a doctor’s letter attesting that the stuff was necessary - they were, in effect, accusing me of wearing them to give credence to the otherwise unlawful cane.
When I told one family member the story, he replied that we require medical exams for pilots, and maybe we should have a certain minimum standard of physical ability for passengers, so that the ill and injured wouldn’t get in the way of security. He actually thinks that way. (Although he also enjoys tweaking my nose.)
