My stepmother told me when
she was just a baby, her mother was so busy, she would strap her to her
7-yr-old sister’s back and go out to the fields to work. One day, she lost her
balance and fell smack on her back—in other words, on the infant’s face—and
couldn’t right herself. She lay there on the ground like an upturned turtle--for
hours until someone came along and helped her up. By then, the baby had stopped
breathing and was turning purple. The older sister was sure she had murdered
her baby sister.
But God had other plans for this
baby and couldn’t let it die just yet. When the grandmother saw it, she held it
upside down by the legs and gave it several firm whacks in the fanny as a
physician might do, and a strong cry brought relief to the parents...and the sister.
