In The Princess Bride, They Refer To A Vomitous Mass...

Written by: Julie

I write a letter to Chase every Sunday night. This is part of my letter. I thought you may enjoy the story and enjoy that it didn't happen to you.There are no pictures but I tried to write in such a way that all you need is your imagination. If you need to, just skim through till you get to the good parts...

We have arrived at church. All is well. Kylie and Griffin are sitting quietly beside me. Griffin begins reading one of his books; asks me every now and then what a word is.

The Bishop then gets up to start the testimony part of the service. Griffin begins to whisper to me that he doesn’t feel good. Griffin tells me he doesn’t feel good when we do homework, when it is time to get dressed for school, when I wake him up, whenever there is something to do that is not considered fun. I just told him he was fine. “Feel my head”, he asked. Ok. So, I did; he felt fine and I told him so. He is now lollying on me; asks for a hug, which I give him. I am wishing he would find some entertainment in his bag. I look at him and his face is scrunched up. He says his stomach feels bad. I ask him if he needs to go potty. He has been known to not go potty at all in the morning before church; my stomach would hurt too! “No”, he says. The Bishop ends his “talk” and encouraged many people to come up and bear their testimony. As soon as he is done, about 5 people hopped up to do just that. I was amazed; never seen so many people make a mad dash to the microphone.

By now, Bro. Sotis is bearing his testimony, which I am really enjoying. He is talking about praying and listening to what the Lord wants him to do, not necessarily just what he wants to do himself. He has a New Jersey accent which I really enjoy too and I begin to remember that he and his wife knew each other when they were younger; in love, but lost each other (I can’t remember why), married other people; many years later their spouses die, they FIND each other again and get married, are so happy…sweet story.

Griffin seems kind of uncomfortable so I lean over to Zak who is sitting closest to the aisle and tell him that I need him to take Griffin out to the potty, maybe that will help him feel better. I lean over to tell Griffin my plan and he makes the physical motions of the beginnings of throwing up!! I am aghast! I really do not know what to do. I move my primary bag with all my music away from the possible splash. I have no blanket or towel or anything to have him throw up on or in and it is too late for him to walk out. I scoot over a bit and tell him it’s ok, just let it come right here on the bench. (It's an upholstered bench.) Really, what else could I do?? He threw up on the bench, on my skirt, on his pants. It wasn’t so loud, but loud enough. Apparently the old couple sitting behind us got up and moved to the back row. Jane Colton, sitting in front of us quickly emptied out a bag of colored pencils and gave that to me so Griffin could throw up in that; which he did. Finally he got done. The person giving the testimony just kept right on speaking. The Jensen’s, sitting behind me, passed up some diaper wipes to use in the clean-up. Quinn and Kylie went out to get loads of paper towels and some wet paper towels. Jane Colton saw Lana Christensen out in the foyer and she happened to have a wash cloth, Jane brought that to me to use too. As I was cleaning, a friend sitting on the same bench, but down a bit from Griffin whispered over, “the bag is leaking!” The bag with the throw up was dripping on the bench. Oh my. I quickly wrapped paper towels around it and asked for a volunteer to carry it out to the trash. I think Kylie did it.

I cleaned up Griffin as much as was ok for him to walk out to the car and not cause a chain-reaction throw up by observing audience members. He was very sad, sick and crying. I kissed him, told him it was ok, Zak would help him to the car. I told Zak to make sure that if he threw up again to have him do it out side! Zak sweetly held his hand (which he washed vigorously later) and helped him out to the car. I continued to clean up the seat as best I could I had several loads of paper towels brought to me. When the seat and my skirt were cleaned enough, I took Quinn out to the car with me so he could be Griffin’s nurse at home. Zak had to stay at church to advertise his up coming Eagle Project/Blood drive. We got Griffin home, changed and situated on the couch. Quinn got good nursing instructions. I changed my clothes, washed my hands, got more cleaning materials to clean the bench up at church and drove back to church.

All were clearing out by the time I got back. Dad came down off the stand and asked Zak and Kylie what happened down here. Where is Mom and what is that wet spot? He had NO idea!! He was cleaning up and I joined in to help with my upholstery cleaner and rags. We got it clean and smelling just fine…I smelled it up close.

By the time we came back home from church I was sure Griffin would be just fine. He wasn’t! Quinn said he had thrown up about 6 times! He did not feel well. He continued throwing up all day. So far no one else has been sick; let’s hope it stays that way.

In all my years (26) of mothering, I have never had anyone throw up during sacrament meeting. Angie Jensen told me later she was proud of how I handled it all. I have washed my hands about 300 times.