Thursday's Thoughts - week of 3/5

I am participating in Thursday's Thoughts this week. It is something I've wanted to do for a while, so here goes nothing. This week's question is from Jennifer at The Literate Housewife Review.

What are your earliest childhood memories? How old were you at the time? Why do you think those memories are what stayed? How are those memories important to you?

I'm not really sure if it is my earliest, but it is one that stands out to me and one that I'll never forget.  I believe it was around Valentine's Day or Easter, and my brother and I were sitting in the middle of my bed sharing candy.  We had been eating chocolate and then he wanted a piece of butterscotch, his favorite.  Well, I'm the big sister and I doted on him so of course I gave him what he wanted.  How was I to know that he hadn't completely finished his chocolate candy?  Anyway, he started choking on the butterscotch because he swallowed it before he dissolved it or chewed it up.  Talked about scared!  I ran to my parents who yanked him up and commenced to shake him upside down.  I remember my mom being on the phone with the doctor while I just waited at the front door.  I was watching out the glass door, begging the ambulance to hurry, praying for my brother not to die.  What if I killed him?  The doctor told my mom to tell my dad to turn my brother right side up and beat him on the back.  He did, for what seemed like ever, and the candy just popped out!

I must have been 4 or 5 when this happened, which would make my brother 3 or 4 at the time.  We are 18 months apart.  I think it has stayed with me because I felt so responsible for what happened.  My parents were mad at me at the time, but also knew that it wasn't entirely my fault.  Yes I had given him the candy, but he was okay and that was all that mattered.  Needless to say, I don't think we were left unattended to eat candy for awhile.

This memory is important to me today because yesterday my brother's first child was born.  I love my brother and would have been devastated if something had happened to him that night.  He is now a father and is experiencing a new kind of love, the love for a child.  Congratulations little brother; you are going to be a great daddy!