Monday, May 24, 2010

Sick Traditions

Today my daughter is sick. She greeted me this morning with "Ugh, my throat hurts." Her eyes are dull, her forehead is hot. Just for today, she doesn't mind reverting from being her independent self and being once again, my little girl. She knows that today, she will lay comfortable on the couch and she'll be the responsibility of the whole family, but primarily mine.


Today, the little portable side table has been unfolded. It is next to the arm of the couch and has Brown Betty, our little brown teapot; a small sugar bowl and spoon on it. Next to that is the box of tissues, tied to it's leg is a small garbage bag. I check on the teapot's level every so often, to make sure there is enough tea in it. We are forcing fluids.


"Mommy, would you cook me some oatmeal?" she asks. Mommy? She hasn't called me "mommy" in years. I know she is feeling sick, weak and vulnerable. I go to the kitchen and make her some hot oatmeal. I know exactly how long to cook it so it's the consistency that she likes.


I can't help thinking about the different ways we take care of our sick family members. My mom was a RN before she married and she worked in the hospital. Whenever we got sick, she put us in isolation. Our roommate would be moved out and into another siblings room for the duration of our illness. No visitors. My mom believed in one atmosphere, so we stayed in our room. In those days, most families had one tv, and it was in the livingroom. Therefore, we didn't watch tv when we were sick, we either read books, played with some quiet toy, or slept. We were given an old school bell to ring if we needed anything, but pretty much were left alone.



My mother's mom, my Meme, was not an RN and she had a whole other approach to a sick child. She lived in a two story house and was in her late 60's when grandchildren began to make their appearances. So when I got a cold while staying at her house, she told me to lay down on her couch. She put a little tv table next to me with a box of tissues and a book she had picked out for me. We listened to her radio programs together while she did her housework. When I got bored with listening, I read the book. My grandmother was always picking up new books she thought we'd like to read when we came for a visit. Then she bought in hot chicken noodle soup for lunch. About 1pm, she put another heavy blanket over me, and put a heavy sweater on herself. Then she opened all the house windows "to air out the place." Her thoughts were that the freezing air would either blow the germs out the windows, or freeze them to death. After about an hour of that, she closed the windows and made us a pot of tea accompanied by some Stella Dora cookies. For supper, she made me a bowl of tomato soup with a chunk of Velveeta cheese in it accompanied by these large round crackers that were called "moon crackers." I've looked around for them as an adult, and I can't find them. ~sigh!~







My method of taking care of the sick is mostly like my grandmother, I guess. I figure that by the time you find out someone is sick, the germs are throughout the house and most of the family has the germs already, so I put them on the couch where I can keep a sharp eye on them. I force fluids like warm tea or warm lemon water with honey.
They feel warm, snuggled and cared for. And just for that day (or days), they remember being a child.






Pictures of radio and Cambellsoup do NOT belong to Mary Bennett. Picture of teapot and sugar are Copyright2010 Mary Bennett

4 comments:

gena said...

Ugh, poor kid ! I've been fighting the crud for over two weeks now - picked it up when J was in the ER !

Hope she's feeling better and no one else catches it !

gena

Lily said...

How's she feeling now, Mary? I hope better! I do similar things for my kids when they are sick. On the couch, lots of fussing, videos, stories, sleeping. If they get really sick we pull out the couch bed and then I will sleep there with them to make sure they are ok in the night. When the chicken pox hit there were too many for the couch bed, so the kids got the bed and I slept in the recliner, lol. They love that, I think it makes the sick time a bit nicer for them.

Mary Bennett said...

Wow Gena, you've been sick for a while now! I hope you all fee better soon.

Lily: :) I did a lot of the same too. We get such little chance to "baby" our kids as they grow older.

Simple Faith and Life said...

Oh, your mother's way was my mother's way. I remember lying in bed with a cold, running cars (my fingers) up and down mountains (my knees under the sheet). I remember my mom going to the store and bringing me back a dot-to-dot book. And making me chicken noodle soup and jello. It's funny; they are not bad memories, and yet when my kids would get sick, I almost always put them on the couch in the middle of all the action so they wouldn't get lonely, like your grandmother when you were a child...and you.

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails
468x60 - Gavel - Staticbanner