A Funny Conversation with My Grandmother

My grandmother is 85 years old. She dyes her hair and dresses like a 50 year old. She’s in great health for her age and despite two falls in the past two years she hasn’t suffered any broken bones. Yesterday she told me she attributes her good health to cod liver oil. It seems her mother force fed her a tablespoon full every morning of her childhood. Apparently her mother, my great-grandmother, would hand her a tablespoon of cod liver oil in one hand and a quarter of an orange in the other. She’d hold her breath, swallow the cod liver oil, and suck on the orange. Her brother and sister who stood next to her in line would do the same.

In my thirty years on this earth I have already visited more doctors than my grandmother has visited in eighty-five years. When I told her how much I was spending on medical treatments she told me to stop paying so much money for expensive remedies. She told me to swallow a tablespoon of cod liver oil every morning. When I told her I didn’t think that would solve my troubles she told me to give it a shot. “After all,” she said, “we’re talking about $5.”

13 thoughts on “A Funny Conversation with My Grandmother”

  1. I don’t know…I never got a fully developed cold last winter because I used “Arborne” and Zicam chews. At the first sign of a cold, I began taking these two items and was cold free all last winter.

    This year, the most i have had was a sore throat, which I began fighting with both of these medicines and so far no full blown cold.

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  2. I have learnt never to underestimate the wisdom of our elders.

    We were given spoonfulls by our Mother when we were kids. This was the worst time of the day for us.

    But on the otherhand, if so many of us have been given this as a cure-all, is it a result of the company’s great marketing skills?

    take cod liver oil

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  3. Elizabeth — Thanks for the heads up about the lemon flavored oil. It’s not particularly pleasant to swallow so I can’t imagine trying to down the non-flavored version.

    Fernando Moreira — My great-grandmother was Russian.

    Sharon — If you start taking cod liver oil definitely let me know how it goes.

    Prince of Thrift — I have a few friends who swear by Airborne and Echinacea. I’ve never tried either one.

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