During my 72 years on Earth, i.e., various flus, polio, mumps, measles, rubella, smallpox, etc. Except for the flu, they have all but been eradicated.

In thinking about these diseases, I remembered how Mother must have worried that I would catch one of them. It seemed to my preschool child’s mind back then that there was one disease in particular that Mother worried about, and it was not any of the previously mentioned ones. Instead, Mother seemed to fear that I would catch “company.”

I didn’t know what kind of disease “company” was, or even what its symptoms were, but I thought it must be especially bad because when I would ask Mother if I could go next door to play with my friend, she would often say: “No, you can’t go over there today; they have company.” Not only was “company” a terrible disease, but also a very contagious one because they had it a lot!

Diane Ledford, Gastonia, A member of Rutherford EMC