Vomit

 My sister and her husband moved 50 miles north of the nucleus of our family. It was his job opportunity that drove them north. There is the northeast extension that makes the drive bearable in bad weather and rush hour traffic. On a typical Tuesday afternoon, my sister was driving her typical 75 miles per hour, Nan and her two daughters were in the car reminiscing the previous hours with their cousins. All of a sudden the youngest daughter in the car perked up, screamed, "I'm going to throw up". There is no shoulder on this part of the turnpike. Nan was sitting in the front seat, grabbed her purse, threw the contents onto the floor, handed it to her and she quickly filled it with digested chocolate cake, cookies and ice cream from two hours prior at a birthday party. Nan rolled down the window of the fast moving car, grabbed the purse and threw it out the window. Never to be seen again. They were hoping it did not hit someone's windshield. Nan is the most unselfish person in the world. She is a problem solver and very quick thinker on her feet or her butt. Yes, that was her favorite purse.

My sister and her husband drove to visit us in Ohio. We had a super visit by celebrating our birthdays which are two weeks apart. It is exactly 555 miles from my house to her house. It normally took 8 hours if you had a few stops for gas, food or fruit stands. Our family has two favorite things in life butter and chocolate, not necessarily in that order. On their way home from Ohio they stopped for a light snack, my sister chose chocolate cake. There is no such thing as a bad piece of chocolate cake. OH WAIT! Yes there is if it is made with butter and has been sitting on the buffet under food lamps for 6 hours or more. She ate it quickly with a cup of coffee. They pulled over for gas an hour later and she fell asleep. Remember this is an 8 hours drive. Two hours later 2/3 of the way home there was a volcano in the car. She had food poisoning. We all know what that is like, but how do you handle vomiting chocolate cake while you have severe diarrhea, in a car driving 65 miles per hour? Do you pull over? Where do you put your head? Do you lean out of the car and let the vomit go on another persons windshield? Of course you are in the middle lane and trying to put your turn signal on and pulling a wad of tissues out of your pocket. Absolutely nothing worked. Her husband wanted to get home and take care of his wife. My sister wanted to take off all of her clothes and be miserable in the back seat of his new Mustang.

Nan was trained as a nurse, so if we were sick or pretended we were sick she had a cure.  Tea and toast with no butter was the quick to go remedy. Remember we had one bathroom for 9 people and there were three floors with a basement. If Nan was changing a diaper, cooking dinner or hanging clothes, she would run to your side, hold your head til you fell asleep. She had a way to cure the common cold, soothe an upset stomach or fix a broken heart all at once. She was a magician.

Simple Truths!


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