Medicine
I sent my mom a link to the article about the woman with polio who lived her life in an iron lung. My mom grew up Christian Scientist in the ’50s, watching all her classmates get the vaccine, but she never got it. She said that the first time she saw a picture of a kid in an iron lung, it frightened her so badly she had nightmares about it. She gave up Christian Science when she went to college, but it wasn’t until she took my little brother in for his own vaccinations and the doctor said, “Of course I assume everyone else in the house has had their shots,” that she said, “Actually, I’ve never had them,” and the doctor freaked out because he’d given both me and my brother the live polio virus, exposing her. So she got her vaccinations at 34.
I have never written about my mom’s religious upbringing because it’s not really my story to tell, and because it’s a long, emotional, deep-rooted family thing, but sometimes she’ll say something about it casually and it blows my mind.