Droozy was thirteen years old when the doctor ordered a tonsillectomy for her. Mrs. Abner made all arrangements to take the child to the hospital and to stay with her throughout the ordeal.

On a Monday Droozy and her mother packed a small suitcase with such necessary items as a nightgown, comb, toothbrush and toothpaste, as well as a pair of worn out slippers. When it was time to leave, Mrs. Abner and her daughter got on the bus to Steubenville, the town in which the hospital was located. Droozy was given many reassurances by her mother that all would be well, but the girl detected misgivings in her mother’s eyes. “The doctor will go snip, snip and then your rotten tonsils will be out and you won’t have those horrible sore throats any more.” Mama told her daughter about all the ice cream and soda pop she would be getting, and Droozy smacked her lips in anticipation.

The hospital was a huge building with long corridors from which the smell of carbol and ether could be detected. Off one of these corridors was a large room with six children in it. The attendant led the Abners into this room. The sheets looked snow-white on all the beds, and one little girl kept spitting up something red into a receptacle. A very young boy was walking around in a short white gown fastened at the back, and another little girl was listening to stories read to her by a lady, probably her mother.

Droozy was asked to undress behind a curtain and also was given a short white linen coat to put on. Then she was ordered to bed by the nurse. All this seemed very strange to the girl, as she was not the least bit tired, nor were her tonsils to be removed until the next morning. Hardly was Droozy comfortably settled in bed when another white-robed lady appeared with a needle and some tubes and drew some blood from her arm. A thermometer was placed in her mouth and she was asked to hold very still. All this time her mother seemed terribly concerned with a startled look in her eyes which appeared foreboding. Droozy squeezed her mother’s hand, as if to comfort her. No more food was served to the child the remainder of the day, and only a glass of juice was brought in, which was her whole supper.

When the lights were turned off for the night, Mrs. Abner left as she had to go home to her other two children. She promised faithfully to return the next day. Droozy had a restless night listening to all of the unhappy sounds of the children around her, as they moaned and groaned, sighing long sighs that never seemed to stop. In her mind she imagined a doctor with a big scissors, reaching into her open mouth, down her throat, cut­ting her two tonsils off. She even imagined the blood spurting down her throat as she would be choking. At last gentle sleep overtook her.

In the early hours of the morning she was awakened by a nurse who again drew blood from her arm and took her temperature with a thermometer. She was given a pill which made her mouth feel very dry, and her tongue almost stuck to the roof of her mouth. The doctor in a white robe with a happy smile came in with a cheery greeting:

           “Good morning,” he said, and patted Droozy on the arm, felt the outside of her throat, then asked her to “open wide!” “You won’t cut them out now?” shuddered Droozy in a parched voice. When the good doctor answered in the negative, Droozy was relieved. Soon the child was lifted unto a stretcher by two white robed women, and wheeled into the corridor, onto an elevator and into a large room which was flooded with bright lights. From there she was lifted onto another table and strapped to it so that she was unable to move her arms or legs. Droozy became very frightened as she looked up at the ceiling into the bright lights. A triangular piece of metal which was attached to a hose was placed over her mouth and nose by a man clad in green. He asked her to take deep breaths and to count to one hundred. The smell of the ether was very strong and unpleasant. Droozy counted one, two, three, four, five, ten, struggling all the while to keep the evil smelling air, out of her lungs. She counted with greater and greater difficulty fearing that if she accidentally stopped without being unconscious, the doctor would cut out her tonsils and she would feel everything! Fifty, sixty one, two, thr--- and she was in a heavy slumber in which she dreamed she was struggling with Nazis, lions, elephants and bears.

When Droozy awoke she was back in bed and felt very ill with a bad taste in her mouth and a sharp pain in her throat. Next to her bed sat her mother and she was so happy to see her. She reached out for her hand and looking up into the anxious hazel eyes of her mother and gratefully said: “Small Mama, you are here, small Mama!”

Within a week Droozy was well again and enjoying all the attention she received from her family, but she never forgot the welcome face of Small Mama as she was near her in the hospital.

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Introduction
Pork Dumplings
Please Don't Eat the Goldfish
Pretty Shoes
Blueberry Cake
Sukkot
The Garden
Maxel
The Red Rabbit
Passover
The Lost Bathing Tickets
What Shall I Do?  The Double Message
Pieces of Gold
Aromas of the Sabbath
The Birth of a Brother
Green Apples
Herr Kübler
The Broken Leg
Boarding School
The American Calendar
Suse Puppe
Shirley Temple Eyes
Kristallnacht Nov. 9, 10, 11
Aunt (Tante) Mathilde
Ice Skates
The Cologne Cathedral
The Escape
A Belgian Holiday
Gas Balloons and the S. S. Washington
Papa
The Statue
A Bad Dream
A Pencil Thief
The West Virginia Hills
Thanksgiving
Ice Cream, Grieben and Baked Spaghetti
The Gypsy’s Song
Venetian Blinds
The Deaf One
Dimmed Lights
Marryyayo
Friendship
Norma Mae
The Spelling Bee
Run, Thief, Run!
Chances
The Candy Store
The Birthday Party
Deep, Shallow Waters
Red Riding Hood
Small Mama
Droozy In Love
Eskimo Pies
Apple Picking Time
Working Days
Easter Baskets
Valedictorian
Farewell
Blind Joe
Lessons Learned From Parents
About the Author