Mama was a bit childlike when Katherine and I visited her yesterday. She was at once easy to laugh and easy to cry. In the end she was all smiles and seemingly not at all disappointed when we left.
She particularly got a laugh at my expense when I told of the time she made me … very uncomfortable … yep, I think that is what I was …
It must have been a Saturday morning, or perhaps it was any summer morning, when I was quite young. We’ll say I was four to five years old. The living room was full of kids watching cartoons, some of which were either Markey kids or Maher kids, or both. I was sick enough that I either already had a temperature or that Mama suspected I did. Come to think of it, I may have been even younger than four because Mama did not use the “regular” thermometer. Keep in mind, being the youngest child in my family, there is a good chance I was one of the youngest kids watching cartoons, and that the other kids had likely “seen it all” when it came to ministering medical attention to a kid. No matter, I recall that no one, other than me, seemed uncomfortable, or to even take notice, that I was laying bare bottom up on the couch, taking up valuable couch real estate no doubt, with a rectal thermometer sticking out my behind. At first I was mortified! Soon I expect, I was caught up Mickey or Mighty Mouse and life moved forward.
This event left a memory in me that has persisted near sixty years! What a grand adventure, with great discoveries, is this thing called life.
Somehow this remembrance also calls to mind how life experiences mold character, and how wisdom is obtained.
(On a semi-related note, see also … Wisdom is Dear and Paid in Tears)
Love
Wint
Martha Dolores Winston Pylant 