Childhood Illnesses

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Reading this disturbing information made me remember my own childhood. I was lucky to have no serious illnesses, but I did get through all the regular ones. As I remember them, there were mumps, chicken pox, and some viruses. It was a great strain for my mom because she worked and had to leave me at home with a high fever and my grandma. Plus, what gave mom a big headache was that right as clockwork, these illnesses came upon me about two weeks before Christmas every year. Sure enough, after all the happy excitement about Christmas coming shortly before that, I got sick. To this day I do not know why it was this way, but I do know that by the time I got to second-grade thank heavens, mostly, I was healthy and all of this was behind me. I also remember something very amusing. My best friend, who was a year older than me, got ill with the mumps and for some reason, in the Latvian language, they are called cucinas. The second c has a soft intonation and translates to piglets. So when I heard my mom talking on the phone with her mom once again, I got my English all mixed up with my Latvian. So instead of asking mom what she was sick with, I asked, “Can I go and see her piglets?” Now it appears that children around the world are in danger of contracting scarlet fever. I never had it and apparently, now 19 children have died from Strep A-related illnesses. In places, like South Wales and Ireland. I say this is scary, especially for those people who have small children and grandchildren. I hope they can figure out what is causing this outbreak. Another photo of me and Santa when I was five.