…someone tells you that you smell like their grandmother?
The receptionist at the doctor’s office could not have been nicer;
she patiently made calls searching for records lost in the system. She took a
pause to spit into a bottle. When she did that a second time, I asked her if
she was all right. She explained that she was pregnant with her second child
and had hypersalivation. All I could say
was, “Oh.” I wanted suggest that she turn away when she spits but I needed those
records.
Happy that she located them, she told me, “You smell like my
grandmother.” I was speechless. I never equated my grandmother to any kind of
smell outside of the kitchen where the aroma of her chicken and dumplings ruled, but I wasn’t
wearing Eau de Chicken and Dumplings.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Whatever you’re wearing, it smells like her.”
“It reminds me of my grandmother, she died and I’m getting
sentimental.”
I thanked her for her patience and wished her well. I
hope she teaches her children to think before they speak, impress upon them the
importance of language and social skills and to never spit in public or at their desks.