Hi, Ang –

Ah, Frank brings back motherhood memories…

One day when my daughter was about three or four years old, I noticed her rubbing her nose rather frantically and sniffling. I got a tissue, told her to blow into it, and nothing resulted. Something told me to look into her nose, and I was greeted with what looked like a sizeable blood clot blocking one nostril.

It wouldn’t budge no matter how much she blew into the tissue and, in my increasing panic, I “rationalized” that I somehow just had to get air into the nostril again. I prayed the clot wasn’t connected to her brain as I grabbed tweezers, made contact, and pulled out a plump purplish blob. A voice in my head told me to smell it.

It was a raisin.

Happy New Year to all!

Best,
Susan

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Hi Angela,

I had to laugh when I read the letters from other readers about what they put in their ears or nose. It reminded me of the time when I was a child visiting my grandparents and I had two M & Ms left and no pockets in my clothes. Since I wanted to save the M & Ms for later, I put them in my nose. Fortunately, my grandmother was able to get them out without a trip to the ER. These days I never save chocolate for later!

Mary Jo

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Your article reminded me of my youngest daughter, Maria, who, at two, kept pulling on me and trying to tell me, until I got it, that she had put a round thing up her nose, like dried bean. But she wouldn’t let me make any attempt to get it out with tweezers. Finally, I called nurse who live next door. She calmly, as she spoke and diverted Maria, wrapped a blanket around her INCLUDING her flailing arms that had pushed me away, and thus imprisoned her. The nurse was able to remove it easily with the tweezers – a technique to remember with very small children.

Another time she woke me up on a Saturday with this hideous blister on her hand covering her entire palm. Turns out that on our trip to see a NYC eye doctor the previous day (we’d treated her to Radio City Music Hall), she had slid her hand down the bannisters of all their huge staircases (I remember her joyfully doing that, and my husband indulging her in climbing them more than once) and had a humongous friction burn. The things you learn with kids!

I too enjoy the content of WritersWeekly. Does it get me to get my book done? Not yet, but that’s not your fault. That’s old age, a Piscean procrastinating nature and vicissitudes of moving to Florida, hurricanes, a broken arm, buying a condo, etc., etc. I miss New Hampshire, so your stories of Bangor weather, etc. are also much enjoyed.

Maggy