Scars, marks on our bodies that never go away, mean we survived. I have a large cicatrix on my back to remind me that Monday makes 42 years I’ve lived with one lung–the same amount of time I existed with two. Histoplasmosis, caused by a fungus often found in bird droppings, made my left lung collapse and be surgically removed. The only difference I’ve ever noticed was during a vacation in Las Vegas, I couldn’t run to catch a bus. Ken could and asked the driver to wait for me.
Every time I put on make-up, I use a little extra eyebrow pencil to cover the small pit chicken pox left above my right eye. The communicable, childhood disease was my Christmas present from my cousins who were coming down with the malady when we all gathered at Grandpa and Grandma’s house for a family Thanksgiving dinner. I cried when I had to miss our one-room, country school’s family holiday party. I’d prepared for my first box social by covering a shoe box with red crepe paper and decorated it with snowmen cut from wrapping paper. Dad and Mom tried to make me feel better by theorizing that the old man who chewed tobacco and let the juice run down his chin would probably have been the buyer and I would have had to share my lunch with him.
I also acquired a scar on the shin of my left leg while attending the same grade school but that one was more fun. During the winter, we brought our sleds to school to spend recesses sliding down the hill on the gravel road in front of Putnam. I had belly-flopped and bent my knees. One of the boys didn’t steer very well and the metal corner on the front of his sled hit my leg. I suffered a laceration through my pants because we got up pretty good speed.
What memories do your scars summon?
I enjoyed reading your blog today (though I was a little late). As I was reading this I couldn’t help thinking about invisible scars, the kind only we see. I have scars from being in the woods and growing up on the farm, but I also gave the scars of life. They often cut much deeper than the visible ones. But maybe we’ll save that conversation for another time. God bless you always my friend 🙏 ❤
Lolita: I can’t remember if I answered this or not, but here goes. Whether you know or not, I am the bionic woman as I have had about 13 surgeries, and probably another is on the horizon. I have had both shoulders operated on; two back surgeries; both knees replaced; a fibromatosis removed from under my left breast; my tubes tied; surgery to straighten the toes on my left foot; my left leg set after breaking it in 1949; & innumerable cancerous moles removed from my face. I have many scars to accent these areas of my body that have suffered the indignities of surgery.