Family Stories

One story that often comes up every once in awhile, whenever we are at family reunions or gatherings for holidays, is the tale of my cousin, Peter, choking on a lifesaver during my brother's baptism. It tends to arise in the conversation whenever a new member of our family is born or whenever baptisms in general are being discussed. The story is told that while my parents were standing up in the front of the church with my brother, Judy,who was supposed to be watching Peter, noticed him choking on something. They stopped the baptism and dislodged the object in his throat that was causing the irruption. The object turned out to be a lifesaver candy. This was found humorous by many in the family. Most of the people there claim that Judy neglected to watch the young child, and that that's why she has never had children herself. Judy remembers it a different way though, that she was watching him the whole time but never noticed him slipping that small candy into his mouth. Judy is my only aunt that is still single, and the family likes to wonder sometimes after hearing this story if that was just how it was meant to be. (Judy still has many opportunities to babysit her nephews and nieces, everyone just likes to give her a hard time about it)