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3/27

1998

17A

ents could decide whether to send
he winter flu season had been
our children.
excessively long and varied.
Stunned disbelief, that a teacher
For more than two-and-a-half
would let a child with chicken pox
months, as soon as one child in the
remain in gan, soon was supplanted
family recovered from an ailment,
by common sense: All the children
another one woke up ill. Or some-
probably had been exposed already,
times, two or all three of them would
so
what difference did it make?
be home sick together. Ear infections,
Common sense gave way to admi-
eye infections, strep throat, unex-
ration
for the idea. It was brilliant.
plained raging fevers, nameless virus-
We pbrents could expose our 2-year
: es and bronchitis: Yehuda, Sara and
olds purposely to chicken
even baby Yitzi were a
pox, at the perfect age for
walking encyclopedia of
them
to get it and at the per-
cold-weather illnesses.
fect time of year: after
They became weekly,
Chanukah and before
and sometimes even thrice
Pesach. Moreover, any of
weekly, visitors at the neigh-
the
children who came
borhood branch of the
down with chicken pox
health-care provider to
could continue coming to
which their family
Diane S chaefer
gan, as long as he or she
belonged. The only thing
Appl eTree
felt OK and didn't have
for which their mother had
Staff Writer
fever.
to be thankful was that the
The
following
day, when Sara
pediatricians' offices were located,
showed up at gan, so did all six of
I most conveniently, across the street.
her classmates. Three had had chick-
Their mother went crazy. Meetings,
en pox previously, though one,
planned for weeks, were cancelled
Hadassah, had come down with it
and rescheduled, then cancelled
1 when she was 1 month old and
again, and finally abandoned alto-
might catch it again. (She didn't.) The
! gether. Grand plans for accomplish-
plan worked.
ing much-needed work around the
Sara and the other three previously
house fell by the wayside, as one
unexposed pre-schoolers all came
sick child after another sought round-
down
with chicken pox two weeks
: the-clock comfort in maternal arms..
later, along with Bracha's 3-year-old
At long last, it looked as if every-
daughter.
Because Sara first broke out
: one had recovered and life in
on a Friday, she was at home for two
I Yehuda, Sara and Yitzi's house could
I
days
anyway. She spent a miserable
I return to normal. But then, disaster
Sunday at home, as well, then was
struck with the ring of the telephone. I
packed off to gan every morning for
I was Morah Bracha, Sara's pre-
the rest of the week, giving her a
I school teacher. She wanted to inform
social outlet and her mother a brief
I us that her younger daughter, who
morning vacation. The only draw-
also attended the preschool, or gan,
back was that, when little Yitzi came
had just come down with chicken
down with chicken pox exactly two
pox. Morah Bracha had decided to
I
weeks
after Sara, there was no gan
keep gan open and let her daughter
for 5-month-old babies. Nor is it so
with chicken pox run loose. We par-
certain that, like Hadassah, he won't
Diane Schaefer lives outside
come down with chickenpox again.
Jerusalem with her husband and
But perhaps a chicken-pox gan will
three children.
I be available for him by then. ❑

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