MAGIC MINUTE // “Mrs. Smale! Mrs. Smale! My baby’s choking!” screamed our distraught neighbour, storming into our front yard, holding her semi-conscious toddler in her arms.
His face now purple, our quirky 1950s mother could see this little boy was about to die, and swung into action.
She took him by the ankles and started whizzing him round and round her like a merry-go-round till he was flatout horizontal!
I can only guess what poor Mrs. Davidson was thinking while all this was going on. But her little boy was fading fast and something had to be done!
So round and round they went till a massive spluttering cough dislodged half an eggshell from his throat, followed by a plaintiff cry.
Then my mum gently laid him in his mother’s grateful arms, and she lovingly cradled him back to consciousness.
Nowadays, you’d apply two to five chest thrusts or two to five back blows to dislodge some foreign body. But my single mum had to think quickly for there wasn’t a second to lose!
That day, our rough and ready mum’s marvelous hands of fate, were what brought that little boy back to life.
