h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

When I was in school - in the '60's, my best friend was epileptic. Our small crowd watched her go through petit mal, psychomotor, and grand mal seizures, as her doctor experimented with drugs to help her, which eventually happened. Her mother was a nurse, and had us all over for tea and to explain what was happening, and how we should help. Then she made us practice till we knew exactly what to do for our friend. She was no different from the rest of us, we realized, she just needed some people around her who understood. The rest of the people at school didn't understand, for the most part, and their reactions varied from ignoring her, to saying some pretty nasty things. We had a great chemistry teacher who educated the rest of the class, and that made it easier for her - and her friends, as we were all classed as wierd.

We did have one funny incident out of it all. My friend had had a few seizures in Chemistry, Mr B would come and help us, the seizure would end, and she would go and lie down for a bit. We were preparing oxygen, and blew up our experiment. Mr. B thought it was a really bad seizure when 3 of us screamed, and leaped right over his lab table to get to us. By this time we were collapsed in a laughing heap on the floor, and he made a big display of beating us with our lab notes. I went to our class reunion 15 years later and there's still a black streak across the lab ceiling from the rubber stopper!

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