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Health & Fitness

My Stiff Upper Lip - What Happened To It?

When grandchildren get hurt, I'm useless!

Since my grandmother lived with us, I have distinct memories of the times she applied her remedies for various ailments and injuries. Two are the most distinct, perhaps because they occurred more often.

When I got a cut – not a scrape, not a scratch – but a clean cut, I would run into her room and hold it out. First she would grab a tissue so blood wouldn’t drip on her floor, then she would get out her turpentine. This wasn’t ordinary turpentine, but was in an apothecary bottle. She would pour it quickly over the cut, put on a bandaid, and then the miracle would happen. The cut would stop hurting, and the next day it wasn’t sore.

When Ron and I were first married and setting up our home, I found such a bottle, labeled “Medicinal Turpentine”, in the local Skaggs. Of course I bought it, and carefully poured it over many cuts during the next several years. It works. I have a couple of bottles put away, in fact. Shhh.

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The second treatment was for smashed fingertips, usually from car doors or bike spokes. If it swelled up, and turned purple, I knew I had to head into Momo’s room for the “hot needle” treatment. She always softly cradled the injury in her hand while she heated a needle over her Murphy stove. When it was just the right temperature, she would grasp the eye with tweezers, then hold the sharp tip against the nail. She never pushed, knowing the heat would do the trick. Soon a small drop of blood would appear, then more, until the pressure went away. Magic.

Ella and Liz visited this week, and Ella took a tumble – a perfect fall that resulted in a chip in her tooth. The fall didn’t hurt much, and Ella was a champ. But Liz noticed the chipped tooth and then Ella got scared, wondering why her mom was insistent on a photo of her “best picture smile.” She cried, and I melted.

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I was of no use, other than to hold Ella’s hand. I had no miracle fix. The tooth is cracked to the gum line, and now, instead of just being a snaggle-tooth for a few years, Ella either will have to have the tooth removed, and a spacer put in, or have a root canal.

When our kids were little, and had asthma, broken bones, cuts, scrapes, or operations, we took it all in stride. Ron and I carried these weights, while not cheerfully, with resignation. We both had proverbial “stiff upper lips.”

I know now that Momo hated seeing me hurt, even while she fixed me. Her lip wasn’t stiff, either.

Somehow that makes me feel better.

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