“I have diabetes.”

Isaiah King, age 5, 2008

While shopping in Target the other day our five-year-old grandson, Isaiah, told his grandmother and me he needed to go to the bathroom. I took him into the men’s room and waited while he finished his business in the stall. After washing his hands we went off to find my wife.

“Nana,” Isaiah told her earnestly, “I have diabetes.”

The British have the best description of the confused look Carolann and I gave each other. We were, as they say, “at sea.”

We had no earthly idea what he was talking about.

“What do you mean?” Carolann asked.

“I had to go potty real bad,” the five-year-old explained. “I have diabetes.”

My wife and I stared at each other blankly for another moment or two until, as the Brits also say, “the penny dropped.”

“You mean you have DIARRHEA?”

Carolann said this. I was too busy trying to choke back a guffaw that was leaking out my nose as barely stifled snorts.

“Yeah. Diarrhea.”

Then, in the spirit of Art Linkletter she issued a follow-up question. “Do you know what diarrhea is?”

“Yeah. That’s when it’s all flat.”

© 2008 by David L. Williams, all rights reserved

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Author: Dave Williams

Dave Williams is a radio news/talk personality originally from Sacramento, now living in Dallas, Texas, with his wife, Carolann. They have two sons and grandsons living in L.A.

3 thoughts on ““I have diabetes.””

  1. *LOL* Isiah may not have known what to call it originally, but he does know his bodily functions. *thumbs up* to Carolann for figuring it out.

  2. I’m happy his condition wasn’t quite as serious as he had first thought. But at the time, I’m sure it seemed dire.

  3. I know better than to read this blog at work but it is a slow day and there was the link, calling to me from my collection of “Favorites”. Within seconds of finishing this story there were at least a half-dozen people standing at my office door wondering what that huge noise was that I just made and asking why I was cleaning my computer screen so earnestly.

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