Julie Helen: Memories from the ordinary days are my favourite kind 

We were in the midst of a school-morning routine and at the ripe old age of six years, Ricky can manage himself very well.

After breakfast, he got the hiccups. We waited a few minutes to see if they would go away on their own. They continued, and he said they were starting to hurt because they were quite strong.

I was getting myself ready, and as I was listening to my boy, I thought about the solution. It didn’t take long for a strong childhood memory to come into my mind.

When I was a child, my Nana Lil had a trick for most things; even then, she was wise, and she had a foolproof, and easily achievable cure for the dreaded hiccups. The trick was to stand in front of the sink with a glass of water. Then you had to try and drink it out of the part of the rim of the glass that was furthest away from you, rather than the closest part of the rim, which is the natural way we all drink out of a glass. She used to call it “drinking water backwards”.

I just casually told Ricky he should try drinking water backwards, and he understandably looked at me like I had just sprouted an extra head!

I went to the kitchen sink to demonstrate. Actually, we have two kitchen sinks, one at wheelchair height and one at standard height. I chose the wheelchair height one as it is low enough for Ricky to lean over while trying to drink in an awkward manner.

I remember when Nana Lil first showed me the trick, I was trying to balance while standing and figuring out the manoeuvre at the same time; there was a lot of concentration employed.

I first showed Ricky how to do it with an empty plastic glass, then we put some water in. He was somewhere between hiccupping and giggling when he attempted the trick. He tried to drink normally, and I told him to try the hard way a couple of times as he tilted the glass back towards his chin. In the end, he spilled all the water out below his chin into the sink, without catching a drop. He seemed disappointed as he straightened himself. “It didn’t work”, he said sadly, without any hiccup.

I pointed out his hiccups had stopped, and his mouth spread into a broad smile. I explained how the trick wasn’t really about drinking the water at all, but the high level of concentration it takes to try to complete the task. The intense focus helped the hiccups to disappear.

Even after years of practice, I rarely manage to drink any water, but the trick always gets rid of my hiccups.

I thought about my Nan so fondly when Ricky bounced around the kitchen finishing his little jobs hiccup-free. She would have had such a chuckle at my demonstration. I also know she would be incredibly proud to think of it happening at my own wheelchair accessible sink in the home where we are flourishing together.

It’s funny how, as we are going through life, we think the important memories are the big milestones or public occasions where we are all keeping up appearances. In reality, my favourite memories with Nan are nuggets like ‘drinking water backwards’ she passed on on ordinary days, when it was just me and her. I can taste the water and feel my teeth on the glass that first day,, it doesn’t feel that long ago. Now Ricky has a piece of her knowledge too.