That one time Judy saved her daughter’s life...
“When I was a little girl, I loved St. Joseph’s children’s aspirin – tiny orange tablets with a delicious citrus flavor. They taste wonderful. I had no idea they were medicine; as far as I was concerned, they were just candy, my favorite candy. I didn’t understand why I only got to have one or two at a time. After all, they were so small.
Then, one summer afternoon, when I was eight-years-old, I found the ‘orange candy’ in the bathroom cabinet and proceeded to take advantage of my good luck by eating the whole bottle. Fortunately, my mother found out what I’d done, or I might not be here today. Terrified, she called the doctor, who told her to induce vomiting immediately. Apparently, the doctor instructed her to use milk-soaked bread for the purpose, so Mama stuffed me with the soggy mess until she succeeded in making me throw up. After I had seemingly vomited up my stomach lining, she was so relieved that she celebrated by giving me the spanking of my life.
Unable to understand why she had to spank me after all the vomiting, I cried hysterically as my mother repeated, “Don’t you understand? You could have died! You could have died! Don’t you ever do that again!”
At the time I couldn’t understand why Mama was so angry at me; only years later, as a parent myself, can I understand my mother’s terror that afternoon. Now I understand the irony of the fact that my mother, so concerned about my first ‘overdose’, was hospitalized for the same problem that summer.”
Lorna Luft, Me and My Shadows
