The first time I cheated death was at three years old. Stung by four or five wasps, my fever shot through the roof. Out on the homestead there was no neighhbourhood Doctor nor physician. Mom placed cold towels on me throughout the day keeping the fever from sky-rocketing, and somehow, I survived.
Then the next time was when my brother Butch was a baby. Mom had taken a trip to see her mom with the baby. I was wearing a wine coloured wool sweater. All sweaters were wool those days. Back in the 1940’s one didn’t buy coloured clothing in the down town or suburbia clothing store. This sweater was dyed. Man, did I react to the sweater with blood poisoining! When mom got home, she slathered me with salt water 3 to 4 times a day drawing it out. Finally white stuff came out of the blood poisoning on the skin, and I again cheated death.
During this era one would never ever wash the colored clothing together. Even sewers would never touch the end of their colored thread to their tongue for the same reason. Colored clothing would have to be washed separately a number of times before the dye was considered safe. Wikipedia says of clothing dyes, “Mordants (from the Latin verb ‘mordere’, meaning ‘to bite’) are metal salts that can form a stable molecular coordination complex with both natural dyes and natural fibres. Historically, the most common mordants were alum (potassium aluminum sulphate – a metal salt of aluminum) and iron (ferrous sulphate). Many other metal salt mordants were also used, but are seldom used now due to modern research evidence of their extreme toxicity either to human health, ecological health, or both. These include salts of metals such as chrome, copper, tin, lead, and others.”
The next time was when I was 19, and the polio pandemic was going around. I was an intern student nurse at Tisdale hospital caring for others with polio, when I myself became sick. It wasn’t long before I was in an iron lung for a couple of months in the basement of City Hospital. I was fortunate that I was not in an iron lung for years on end. Did you know there are still people in iron lungs from the polio pandemic in the 1950s? The iron lung, indeed helped me to breath as paralysis set in across my body. Once again, death was cheated of this soul.
The next time was when a heart attack ravaged my body. My cardiologist still cannot figure out why I am alive. My meds get changed around somewhat here and there, and yet my ticker keeps on ticking.
Why does the Lord still want me around? I don’t know why I have been blessed. Now with the COVID pandemic going around myself, and family are still doing well, touch wood.
Bless you and yours, and I hope you get through pandemic on the other side without a worry. If you or yours have experienced loss of a close one my sympathies and condolecences. Best wishes to all those with COVID or long COVID during these weird times. Take care, and season’s greetings.
Flower drawing
bsherdahl 