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12.2.15

ON THE VERANDA - a 100 word story

Here I am again with another 100 word story prompted by a photograph on Rochelle's blog. 
See https://rochellewisofffields.wordpress.com/  and follow the Blue Frog icon to read other writers' takes on the same prompt - it always amazes me how different our stories can be!

In the first weeks of this year I have been blessed with two gorgeous granddaughters to add to my two handsome grandsons. Millie was born in England on January 8th and Natalie was born in Canada on February 7th. The subject of infant immunisation is therefore very close to my heart.

ON THE VERANDA

I can see Susie and Jake playing next door and I'd like to join them but they don’t play with me now.

Last summer we were together every day – splashing in our pool, making cookies with their mum, kicking a ball – until we got ill. The doctor said it was measles and we should have been vaccinated, but our mums hadn’t had us done.

The whole town rushed to get the jabs but it was too late for some of us. Two babies died and Mum says I’m lucky I only went deaf, but I don’t feel lucky – I'm just lonely.


32 comments:

  1. Oh, so sad Izzy, but I'm sure your two new grandchildren will be up to the minute with their jabs. Congratulations!

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    1. Thanks Maggie - my children are strongly in favour of immunisation, thank goodness.

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  2. Poignant, as ever, and on a subject I feel very strongly about. Good one!

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    1. Thanks Robert - my latest grandchild's father was born in 1978 just at te height of the immunisation scare. It worried me at the time but as his siblings had survived their jabs I had him done too.

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  3. Immunizations are for the childrens' sake and health. Which would the parents prefer: sterility from mumps (my brother), blindness/eyesight damage from measles (another brother), or miscarriage/retardation/deformities from rubella (Dale Evans of Roy Robers)? The parents' fears need to take back seat to the options. Kids in the front seat.

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    1. Well said, Susan. Awful that two of your brothers are permanently damaged by the adverse publicity immunisation had in their early years. Unfortunatley the media of the time was packed with horror stories of brain-damaged kids, and parents thought they were putting their children's welfare first. Only when it was too late did the hysteria fade and a balance return.

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  4. if anything, it's only a temporary situation. in due time, she'll have playmates again.

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    1. I hope she does - deafness can be so isolating.

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  5. Congrats on the grandchildren. February 7th was my mother's birthday. She would have been 99 this year.
    As for immunization, I'm for it for dangerous diseases, but here they often want to vaccinate a child to 25 things at once. I think if they spread those out over several months it would be safer for the child's health. We've had a dramatic increase in autism over the last few years and some are linking it to immunizations.

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    1. The rise in autism is dreadful but much more likely to be due to toxins than the immunisations that have been around for decades. My children had the MMR vaccine and a polio one. They were also immunised against TB from birth - my youngest at a few minutes old - because their father had TB as a child. We drop immunisation at our peril.

      Happy birthday to your mother.

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  6. A chilling story these days when people deny vaccination for superstition and internet conspiracy theories.. But when I was a kid we were supposed to get measles.. Rise in autism is clear but could have so many other reasons.. not the least that we have started diagnose all kind of things. The biggest danger is of course not vaccination but resistance to antibiotic, my father survived TB... On the other hand we had a disaster with vaccination against the swine flu a few years back where a few children actually came down with narcoleptic disorders...

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    1. No doubt the same debate will arise every time a new vaccine is discovered. Medicine moves forward, sometimes too quickly, but should not be forced by ignorance to move backwards.

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  7. Written with obvious feeling. Well done.

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  8. Sad cautionary tale, thankfully worlds away from your reality. Congratulations!

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    1. Thanks, Perry - both my new granddaughters will have all their vaccinations - their parents are too sensible to listen to scaremongering.

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  9. Dear Lizzy, Great story nicely written! My mother's name was Millie, so of course I love your story! Love it! Nan :)

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    1. Thanks, Nan. <y daughter wanted to call her baby Millie but also to give her a name that was more formal for future use. After a lot of thought she came up with Amelia, so that is Millie's given name.

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  10. Dear Liz,

    I'm giving your piece a standing ovation and two needles up. I have three brilliant sons. I never thought twice about vaccinations. Beautifully written story. Thank you.

    Shalom,

    Rochelle

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    1. Thanks a million, Rochelle. How old are your sons? I only had to think twice with my youngest who was born in 1978 at the height of the scare.

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    2. Your youngest and my middle were both born in 1978, Liz. My firstborn came in 1974 and the baby in 1983.

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    3. I had my first three in 1967, 1969 adnd 1971 - we just had them vaccinated automatically then. I suppose it was the same in America.

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    4. It was for me. I had them vaccinated at all the appointed times. I attributed the fact that you rarely saw measles anymore or polio or smallpox to vaccines.

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  11. I've nominated you for a very inspiring blogger award, lizy. So if you'd like to accept, pop over to my blog for the full details and award picture. :-)

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    1. OMG! Thank you Carol. I shall dash over now for a look.

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  12. Gosh! That's so sad. So many of your 100 word stories have a chill to them.

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    1. I shall try for a happy one soon, Ros, but one must go where the mind leads!

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  13. Whenever I see a newborn, I feel overwhelmed with how vulnerable wwe are as life begins. So many dangers, so many risks, and so many battles lie ahead. Your story brought all this to mind. Beautifully told.

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    1. Thanks Margirene. Two newborn granddaughters this year have brought that forcefully home to me.

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  14. A cautionary tale. Unfortunately there are still people who refuse to vaccinate their children and people who concoct a narrative that vaccines are unsafe.

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    1. Unfortunately. That's expressing it mildly, Subroto, when the results of the diseases can be so devastating.

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  15. In the 1950s there were no vaccinations for mumps, measles, and rubella. We had them all. My youngest brother had mumps twice, was so sick. This made him sterile.
    These parents are incompetent and ignorant and negligent.

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