Parkinson's Disease.............. A Big Deal or Not

My Mom and Dad had strange senses of humor and liked to be silly but they were also very calm and mellow.  Nothing was ever a big deal at our house.  Nothing!   

 

Moomer & YumaBev 

When Moomer (a nickname we called my Mom) went into labor with me, it was 2 pm and she was baking cookies for a boy scout meeting.  She calmly finished baking the cookies, made Kool-Aid, arranged a sitter for the younger two kids, took the cookies and drinks to the Den Mother and asked her to keep the older two kids for awhile, then drove to the base, picked up Dad and went to the hospital.  I was born at 4:44 pm.  She said she had done it four times before, so it was no big deal. 

It was the same with the accidents.  When I was 13, I saw my brother get hit by a car and yelled "David just got hit by a car". This was Moomer's very calm reply:  "Call the ambulance (911 wasn't invented yet),  then go down the street and ask Mr. G to please come over, and then come back and help me." It was as if she was reciting chores.  She told Mr G what to do and then told me to calm down the driver (a 16 year old).  The police and ambulances showed up and the trouble started.  The car was in the county but 

Ambulances filled our street

David landed in the city, the center line in the road was the divider.  The police started arguing as to who had jurisdiction and who should do what.  That got my Mom mad and in a drill sergeant voice, Moomer ordered Mr G and one of the paramedics to move David to our driveway (county) and then she told the city cops and ambulance to get the hell out of there!  David had a broken leg but he was fine.  No big deal.  

Both Dad and Moomer liked to enter contests and often they won.  The DJ on the radio would be whooping and hollering and Moomer would say "that's nice" about the prize.  Dad hit the lottery for several thousands of dollars and barely broke a smile.  It was no big deal.

YumaBev's  Dad 

Dad's job in the Air Force was a weatherman and he usually worked in the control tower giving weather reports to pilots.  His last assignment was at Andrews AFB, home of Air Force One, the President's plane, so he frequently gave reports to those pilots.  A big deal, I thought, but not to him, just another day at work.  I guess that's why, when I bumped my head on the side of that UPS truck and got flown by helicopter to Walter Reed Military Hospital, I ended up, at age 6, embarrassing both my parents.  You see, it just so happened that former President Eisenhower was in the hospital at the same time, and since I was a serviceman's child with a big crack in my skull, someone decided that I should get to meet the former President.  So, they wheeled me into his room and asked me if I knew who he was.  I said no.  Then they said "This is the former President of the United States, Mr. Eisenhower".  And I said "so what" or "who cares" or something like that.  Mom and Dad were mortified, but it was no big deal to me.  

When my first husband died in a car crash when I was 23, they said "everything will be fine" and pretended it was no big deal.  When Moomer was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer a few months later, it was no big deal, she said, I'll always be with you.  A few years later I married my wonderful husband and everything WAS fine and Moomer IS with me everyday in my heart, so, when I got diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease at the age of 47, it really was NO BIG DEAL!


Thank you for reading this story, I hope you enjoyed it. This is just one of a hundred stories in my book, Parkinson's Humor - Funny Stories about My Life with Parkinson's Disease. Please consider purchasing a copy from Amazon.com or your favorite online book seller. Thank you and have a Happy Parkie Day!