#52stories - Week 1

Familysearch.org is encouraging people to document their own life histories through a project called 52 stories.  In this project, you are to write one brief story about your life every week during 2017. I am late getting started, but decided it is a worthwhile thing to do.  And what better place to post the entries than my blog?  So here goes.

Mumps.  I originally planned to start at the beginning of my life, but I think this will be more interesting.  A couple of days ago, Rex (my husband) asked me if I had the mumps as a child.  Yes, I did.  And let me tell you what I remember about having the mumps.

I was in the 3rd grade--Mrs. Borthwick's class at Fairfield High School--when I got the mumps.  So that was 1960 or 1961. I remember staying home for several days, maybe a week.  It was during the school year, but I don't remember the season.  My mom set me up downstairs in the family room on a daybed. There was a television in the room, but I don't remember watching anything. The daybed was by the window and I could look out at the mountains at the back of the house.  I remember my throat hurt and I could only swallow soft things and liquids. Then I went back to school.

But the story doesn't end there.  After I went back to school, the rest of the family got sick.  I think it was Sally on Monday, Graham on Tuesday, Cathie on Wednesday, and Mom on Thursday.  Dad had the mumps as a child, so he didn't get sick.  After Mom got sick, the women in the community started bringing all kinds of great food to the house--casseroles, desserts, you name it.  The fridge was full.  And it was all mine! And Dad's, of course.  We feasted while the others had throats too sore to eat the good stuff.

Yesterday it occurred to me that there might be other points of view.  So I asked Cathie if she remembered having the mumps.  She did, but she didn't remember that I had brought them home.  She remembered being in the living room with other family members and everyone being sick.  That was unusual because we usually slept upstairs.  And the living room was hardly ever used.  She said she thinks she mainly ate custard. She was in the 7th grade.  And she recalls that the mumps ran through my uncle Tate's family after we were finished with it.

I asked Graham, and he also remembered most of the family getting the mumps and being in the living room.  He slept on the sleep sofa that was in that room.  He remembers Reverend MacDonald from Fairfield Presbyterian Church stopping by to visit and praying for them.  He also remembers the community bringing food, including a Pyrex dish of macaroni and cheese. He was in Mrs. Whitehurst's 1st grade class.  Sally does not remember having mumps; she was 2 years old.

And that's the end of the mumps story.