Nanny and the Dandelion

Around Christmas time some of you may remember me venting my frustrations at our Health care system, my grandmother (Nanny), and her horrible cough that has been lasting upwards of 15 years. Well, I have an update.

After hearing that upon arriving back in Ontario after Christmas she rarely left the house due to being so sick, it has come to my attention (and I confirmed it by calling her on my lunch break), that the cure to her problem all along has been in your garden variety, pesky, hard-to-kill dandelion. Yes, a dandelion. Or rather several and in syrup form.

It seems that she was venting and ranting to her neighbor about her problems who gave her a recipe for dandelion syrup. She made it, took 1 teaspoon before bed and 1 teaspoon upon waking up. Either right after this or sometime in the day she started to cough. It was the mother of all coughs. Out came literally cups of green/yellow sputum, phlegm, gunk, goop; whatever you want to call it, it came up.

That was a few weeks ago, perhaps mid April/late April. As of now, she talked to me on the phone for over 20 minutes without having to pass it to my grandfather (Poppy) because she'd gone into a coughing fit. She can laugh. She's leaving home without her water bottle which was, for several years, her lifeline. She says she has a cough every now and then but not to the severity it was before.

For the most part, she's cured of this puzzling disorder that stumped MANY doctors and specialists for almost 2 decades.

All because of a dandelion.

And an old wives recipe.

On another, less optimistic note I found out that the cousin of a distant relative or friend of the family (no idea which) by the name of Ed is going in for quadruple bypass surgery on Tuesday. My thoughts are with him and his/my family.

As for my grandmother, I am so happy for her. I hope this 'medicine' continues to work for her and that she never has to go through any more years of what she did. I don't want to lose her just yet, not when I'm only beginning to appreciate the woman who is an inspiration to me in several confusing, ponderous ways.