Quarantine

When I was a child my Grandmother told me about when she was a girl. Someone in her house had a communicable disease.  I think it might have been measles.  The sheriff came to their door and nailed a quarantine notice to their door.  This meant no one in the family could leave the house.  No one could go to school or to work or to get groceries.  No one was allowed to visit them.  Baskets of food were left on their porch until the quarantine was lifted.  I thought this was odd and old-fashioned.  Never once did I think it could happen to me or in my lifetime.  Then when I was in second grade I didn't feel so well.  I remember sitting on my neighbor's glider on their swingset.  I leaned my head against the pipe of the glider seat and did not have the energy to glide.  I was completely exhausted.  Next thing I know I'm in the hospital and in an isolation room.  Everyone who came in my room was wearing coats and gloves and face masks.  I remember being a little scared.  And I wasn't at all happy about the 3 penicillin shots I took in the rump every day.  I had band aids all over my backside.  After a day or two they took me out of isolation but they kept me in the hospital for a total of two weeks for my bout of pneumonia.  Back then people were kept in hospitals much longer than necessary. I completely missed Easter but I did get lots of visitors. My uncles came and played checkers with me.  Someone brought me a picture book about the 101 Dalmatians that I loved quite a bit.  And now, with the Ebola virus in the United States, quarantine has become an issue again.  People are being quarantined again.  They are not allowed to leave their homes.  Wow.  I never thought I'd see the day that quarantine notices would be put on homes.  At times like these I wish I had my Grandmother back again so we could have another conversation about quarantine.