Secret Revealed!

But just this one...

I knew exactly where to find this picture ... in an album of my early years assembled with a detailed index by my dad ... given to me on my high school graduation day. Awww...

One day at age 5, I was grocery shopping with my mom when a woman approached us at the cold cut counter. She commented on the large molish birthmark on the side of my head and cried, explaining that she lost her daughter from a similar one that morphed into brain cancer. She didn’t call it cancer of course. It’s always stuck with me that she said “ it grew tentacles .” Ewwww...

Here I am, home from the hospital, holding an ice pack, sitting next to the green-haired doll that I coveted every time I went to Woolworth’s with my mom and aunt. Getting this doll was really something special, because we only got gifts and toys at Christmas and on birthdays. My parents must have worried greatly about me.

Years later, amidst raucous laughter after telling my youngest brother J how my oldest brother tried to remove the mole before I went to surgery, I was branded with the nickname “Mole”.... used only between J and me, and now blip! (Other siblings’ nicknames remain in the vault). J also calls me “Mole Woman” singing it to the tune of Soul Man, playing drums with his hands. How I love that boy! (He’s now 54 and 6’1”. I’ve finally quit calling him my baby brother).

So now you know :)

Thanks VERY much to Jensphotos for this MM topic!