MEET BUBBIE

This is my Russian Grandmother, Sara Shapiro, from whom I inherited my psychic gift. She was as kind as she looks in the photo. People came to her for her predictions, potions, and cures. She could fix a small child's hernia, pushing it back into place with her hands, then taping it down. A couple of months later, there was no more bulge. Often, after a baby is born, its head is lopsided from being squeezed in the birth canal. It usually rounds out nicely within a few months, but when a one-year-old boy on our block still had a head that was too flat in the back and too wide on the sides, Bubbie oiled her hands and massaged his head everyday. A few months later, his head was as round as a Gerber baby's. I adored her. The only thing I ever held against her was her cure for croup. Chicken fat in hot milk! I still shudder when I think of it!