The Tiny Potato

Yesterday I almost died. That's how I see it anyway. I have this stupid cold or whatever it is that my nephew was so kind to pass to me and it is just terrible. In between the coughing, the sneezing, the runny nose, the chills, the fever and gallons of tea and all kinds of flu and cold medicines it has been a nightmare. Well, yesterday, I felt a little better. I did not have a lot of energy to cook 99 times per day for my mom, OK maybe not that many but enough times, so the meals on wheels lunches have saved me more than they will ever know this week. Usually she has them for lunch but sometimes she doesn't want them so I just put them in the fridge or freezer for another day. So, I had a stash of a couple of them and when lunch time rolled around I took one out. Well, it was Salisbury turkey fried steak I believe or something similar with potatoes and cabbage and peaches.  But, another one looked good too, sometimes I take food from one and mix and match depending on what it is and what she likes. So, the other one had potatoes in it too but cut up in small cubes. It wasn't a lot, which it never is, but I thought I would combine the two and so that is what I did. So, I got the bright idea of tasting one of the small cubed potatoes. They needed some salt. I took another one and no problem. So, I served my mom her lunch and was standing by the living room window adjusting the curtains and munching on another small cube of potato and that's when it happened. I started choking. The potato had gotten stuck in my throat. I was trying to cough it up and trying to think of how to give myself the hemlock maneuver if I had too. I remembered something about a chair and ribs. I was choking, my mind was racing and there was nobody here to help me. Then it happened. I blacked out and fell on the floor backwards. It was like everything was in slow motion. It only lasted a few seconds, I think, because shortly after that I was fine. I had coughed up the potato on the floor and i was on the floor. I was glad that I didn't die on the floor, who knows when they would have found me I was thinking. Well, that and I didn't want to die of course. 
Well, I learned my lesson, a few lessons I should say but the most important lesson is that life is so fragile and that at any minute, any day, any time you could just go to heaven and so you have to enjoy it while you are here and take nothing for granted, not a single second. 

And I definitely won't be eating any more tiny potatoes any time soon.