Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Day 10

People that have known me for many years know that I have a chronic dry cough brought on by my talking at length without taking the time to swallow.  When my throat gets dry, I have a trigger point at the back of my throat that gets irritated and it makes me cough.... a lot and for several minutes.

I always carry a bottle of water with me along with a container of mints so I can prevent the cough from happening. Sometimes I don't get to them soon enough...and I cough.

I'm not sick, but who wants to be around someone who is coughing? And yet, my family and friends have put up with this for years. God bless them.

There's never been a problem, until today.

I needed to go to the grocery store and I loaded up with gloves, wipes, Lysol spray...the works.

And, off I went.

Remember....."Out of the mouths of babes"........

I got to the store, parked my car, had a sip of water, placed a mint in my mouth and stepped out of the car, confident that I had taken care of wetting my throat.

Up ahead, I saw a young mother with her little girl just ahead of me.  The little girl turned and greeted me in a friendly manner.  Little did I know she'd be my undoing.

I smiled back; opened my mouth to speak, choked on my mint and I did the unthinkable.  I coughed; not very loud, but I coughed 3 times.  I did all the right things.  I turned my face and coughed into my elbow.  And kept walking toward the entrance.

And then, I heard her, "Mommy, that lady coughed".   I responded that I merely choked on a mint and that I wasn't sick,  Her mother turned slowly in my direction and asked her, "Which lady, sweetie"?

The sweetie repeated it again, this time loud enough for the world to hear, "Mommy, that lady coughed".

What could I do?  There was no way I could walk into the store now.

I walked by them, directly to the garbage can, dropped my sani-wipe sheet in and walked back to my car and left.

Tomorrow is another day.















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