Don't worry. She'll be alright.

Seeing my colleague rush off from work after he got a call from his daughter's daycare that she isn't well, immediately put me on a flashback mode.

Growing up in an age when there were no ready mobile calls to be made to raise an alarm to the unsuspecting parents, the day I had a massive fall at school playtime and ended up with a gaping cut on my forehead, I landed home after school hours with a band-aid covering my cut.

The school did want to send me home immediately, but being a child of working parents, there were no other ways to get in touch with them and sending me back to a locked home was of no sense at all.

So I came home by the school bus, our household help (and my nanny, and my confidante), as amazing as she was, was unfailingly present at the bus stop to pick me up. She stood aghast looking at my face. I urged her not to say a word to mom, quite oblivious to the fact that the blood stains on my shirt, and of course the not-so-invisible band-aid on my forehead, would be a big let out to my secret.

Cut to the scene, mom gives a terrible shriek looking at my forehead, while I try to console her that it's just a bruise. At the moment, I did believe it was a bruise - a very big Bruise.

She opened the band-aid, and realized it was much more than a bruise.
She solemnly said, "You'll need stitches, darling."
I stood there, a 5 year old, looking quizzically, trying to comprehend the meaning of the sentence -
So... the trophy of my awesomeness had to be "stitched" - wow! that must be something bad-ass.
I must admit I was scared too, but the most comforting thing about having a mom who is a doctor is that, I was sure she could fix me.
She exactly knew what to do with me - took me to the emergency ward and got the cut stitched.

Then she called my dad's workplace to inform him of my latest misadventure - and it was then my dad hurried off from his work, taking off for the rest of the day to attend to his daughter. It took him a frantic two hours to reach me and ensure that I was alright.

I can bet there was the same look of emergency on his face that day, that I saw on the face of my colleague today. I sighed, looked at him and said, "Don't worry. She'll be alright."