When my mother tells this story, she says that she was getting ready to rush my older brother to the ER for something, when I started crying:
“My button, I lost my button.”
She says she had no idea what I was talking about and dropped me off at her friends house so I could stay there while she took care of my brother’s emergency. I think he had hurt himself at the playground (yet again) and had to get stitches. This was back in the day when kids actually played outside.
In the meantime, here I am playing with the neighbor kids (I think I was about 3 or 4 years old at the time) and I sneeze into my hand.
Lo and behold out pops the button!
I was so excited that I ran up to my mom’s friend and held out my hand, “I found my button!”
Not sure what the lady did with it, but that wasn’t the last she would see of my antics.
Another time this same lady was watching me and my siblings when her kids brought me a bottle of liquid Panadol. It was a big bottle probably the size of the liquid Nyquil you’d see today. I remember them telling me to drink it, and of course being the deprived child (we weren’t allowed to have candy), I chugged that thing down.
My mom happened to come by at that moment and I remember walking down the stairs to greet her with the empty bottle and red mustache.
Of course she flipped out and next thing I know she had given me medication that made me vomit continuously.
Moral of the story: don’t deprive your children of candy, they’ll try to find other ways to get that sugary taste!


