Blamed? For giving birth to me? Well, you know, some rare babies are born with yellow skin and require special attention.

In the 1970s, there wasn’t an easy way to understand things like technology or medicine. My granny, who was in her late 40s at the time, didn’t know much about these topics. She spent her life working from farm to farm and often blamed her struggles on her heart or a disability. I’m not really sure what she did during those years.

When my mother had me, no one knew what to expect. I was small, and her pregnancy wasn’t big enough for anyone to notice. Here’s a true story: my mother loved banana split ice cream and always ate it on weekends. One weekend, the day before I was born, she made sure to have her ice cream. That Sunday, my parents went to church, and afterward, my mother told my father to take her to the hospital. When they arrived, the nurse looked at her and said it wasn’t time because she was too small. The doctor even told her, “There’s no baby in there.” My mother got angry and said, “Get this baby out of me!” They doubted her but took her to the delivery room anyway—and surprise, I was born! I came out freezing, with yellow skin, and they were shocked and embarrassed because, well, there I was! DUH!

They put me under a special light until my skin turned a normal color. No one knew I was deaf the whole time—they thought I was just a perfectly normal baby. I stayed there for a few days without even having a name! LOL. Finally, they gave me one—whew! All the while, I was accompanied by a song from Barbra Streisand.

About 18 months later, I found out I was completely deaf. My granny started blaming my parents for giving me yellow skin and making me deaf! It was such an innocent event that happened.

My mother wrote that story, but it got lost somewhere, maybe even thrown in the trash. I can’t say for sure.

Bless her heart, my granny passed away when I was 16. I missed her so much. She loved me like her own children and grandchildren. No one knew about her heart issues until after she passed, and since then, most of us have been paying more attention to our family’s heart health. Heart problems seem to come up often now.

Want to know about yellow skin on baby: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/22263-jaundice-in-newborns

Want to know about heart: https://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/index.htm

Love ya! DW