The Day I Started To Die
I didn’t know it at the time, but I was at the cusp of either staying on this planet and somehow making a difference later on in life or packing it in and going to those pearly gates in the sky. My Angel team decided to heal me and let me live my life out, but as the years unfolded, I found out that my life was very different from most. This sector in my life was the beginning of my world, from color to the cosmos.
It was a Saturday morning, and as I slowly woke up in my big queen- sized bed that had a beautiful mahogany headboard, I was excited to start the day. It was going to be the first day of my baton lessons, and I couldn’t wait to learn how to spin that baton around like nobody’s business. My friend Kathy, who lived across the street, was going with me and we were going to learn how to be Clarkette Twirlers, the best twirling group in all of Port Jefferson!
My eyes opened and the first thing I saw was my left arm. It extended across my bed, almost touching the edge of my mattress. My eyes were in perfect alignment with it and I could see straight down to my fingers. Unbeknownst to me, that image would be etched in my mind forever.
Blink, blink, blink as my eyes came into focus. There was my arm, and as my sight became clear, I noticed something funny. I saw a bunch of pink dots, lots of them, like someone spit Hawaiian Punch through a straw and it splattered all over my arm. I sat up, brought my arm nearer to my face so I could take a closer look. Dot after dot after pink dot covered my arm. I tried rubbing it off, but nothing happened. More pink dots were spotted as I scanned my other arm. Where else were these dots? Up went my nightshirt, there they were! All over my stomach––MORE DOTS!
What the heck was going on? Jumping out of bed, I ran to the dresser that had a big mirror on it and looked at myself. There were pink dots all over me, on my face, neck, arms, and torso. I did a half-turn and lifted my nightshirt as I glared at my back. Dot after dot after dot covered me from head to toe, looking like a constellation gone wrong. I screamed for my mom. My heart was racing, and all that was going through my mind was, why today? What is happening? Today was important to me! Somehow, I had gotten the measles.
I did get the vaccination for German Measles, but I guess in the 1960s, they didn’t make it right or something. I do remember the day I got that stupid shot. I was in the Doctor's office, and I saw the needle coming towards my arm, and BOOM, I fainted. The next thing I knew, I was flat out on the table with my mom and the doctor hovering over me trying to wake me up. According to my mom, it took a long while to wake me up.
What the heck was in that shot anyway? Apparently it wasn’t the right vaccination because I got the measles SO bad! Sparing you the awful details of hallucinating dreams, total disorientation, two months of being out of school, a whole lot of rubbing alcohol to get my one hundred and four fever down, many nights of sleep that were hard to wake from, and my mind and major organs literally frying from this god-awful disease, was what jolted my life into a direction that would forever change my journey and the emergence of my destiny. The memories of this snippet in time, when I was so very sick, still haunts me today. For if it was not for this life-altering two months of my life, everything, and I mean everything, would be quite different.
I'll be sharing snip-it's from the book I wrote, From Color To The Cosmos: Inside The Mind Of A Medium, available in my shop if you'd like a signed copy or in Amazon. Enjoy!
Wow. I had no idea. Now I see where your refusal to take other vaccines comes from. And these childhood illnesses, particularly long and severe ones, are often brain-changing, life-changing experiences. I did OK as a kid, but the hubby had encephalitis at age 8; long period in the hospital at a formative time in his life, one that he will never forget. Big hugs to your inner child, Donna!