This is the mushroom story my family likes to tell. A few months after my sister was born and a couple of years before I was born, my mom’s grandmother, aunt, and parents came to visit. My dad’s parents were living in the house. My mom’s youngest brother lived an hour away from them at the time and her parents went to see him during the day. We have a bunch of pine trees growing in the middle of the backyard and underneath the trees, my great grandma saw these mushrooms growing and she told my dad’s parents how they were the most delicious mushrooms ever. She was in her 80s and clearly didn’t always make the best judgment at times due to age. My grandma didn’t believe her and said that the mushrooms weren’t suitable for consumption. But great grandma didn’t listen and picked the mushrooms anyway and proceeded to make a small pot of soup with them.
My dad came home from work and saw the soup cooking and great grandma had him taste a bit. He said it made his tongue feel numb and the spoon turned black and he got really concerned and told her that the mushrooms weren’t safe to eat and that the soup needed to be thrown out immediately. Great grandma didn’t listen and she hid the pot of soup underneath the sink. The next day my mom’s parents went to visit my uncle and my mom and her aunt were busy taking care of my sister and my dad went to work. While everyone else was busy, great grandma took out the soup from its hiding place and she ate it and had my dad’s parents eat it with her. Grandma said she was forced to do it because great grandma kept insisting and she only ate it to make her stop nagging her. Grandma immediately didn’t feel well and threw up and didn’t eat that much of the soup. Great grandma and my grandpa on the other hand ate the entire pot. Then all three laid Down for a nap.
An hour later, my mom noticed that all three weren’t waking up and saw the pot and bowls that they used to eat the soup. She then immediately panicked and told my dad that all three wouldn’t wake up and he rushed home. They called 911 for help and three ambulances were sent over to the house. The neighbor was coming home from work and saw the madness happening in front of her. My mom had to call her brother to tell their father that his mother was just rushed to the hospital. All three didn’t eat enough of the mushrooms to kill them luckily and had to stay a couple days in the hospital. My grandma was the least affected since she didn’t eat that much of the soup. My grandpa on the other hand, kept flirting with the nurses which irritated grandma. Great grandma actually became very violent. My dad went into her room to ask her how she was feeling and he said that she suddenly swung her arm in attempt to hit him. The staff then struggled to strap her down because she kept trying to attack anyone that came near her. This elderly woman actually made my dad shake in fear because of how violent she had become. My mom was lucky that her aunt had also come to visit and she watched my sister while both of my parents were in the hospital. All three senior citizens made full recoveries and were allowed to go home.
And that’s the mushroom story. My neighbor who saw the ambulance is a retired teacher and she told the story all the time to her students as part of a lesson of not eating wild mushrooms that you randomly find growing outside. My grandma continued to blame great grandma for this fiasco until the day she died. Because of this incident, we never trusted any mushrooms that didn’t come from the store.
