An Old Mrs Lee Story, NQ

OK, just one quick Old Mrs Lee story. This one comes from Beverley:

Nearly a decade back, when this story took place, Beverley had Graves Disease and was on a waiting list for an operation to remove her thyroid.

One day, while waiting, she was in her shed working on her soaps (she has a small business making soaps and herbal hair tonic from old Italian recipes) when she noticed Old Mrs Lee moseying slowly and elegantly along her road (Old Mrs Lee is always elegant. Feeling strongly that she's the LAST REMNANT of 150 years of Chinese history, she tries to embody it in everything she does.) From what Beverley could see, she was peering over fences, looking hard at the grass in everyone's front gardens.

Curious, Beverley called out to her and asked what she was doing. "I've discovered that this is where the Chinese doctor grew his medicines." Old Mrs Lee told her, with great dignity and elegance, naturally, because that's her way. "I'm trying to discover if any of the medicines are left."

Beverley, equally naturally, given her line of work, was instantly fascinated, and "Have you discovered anything?" she asked.

Old Mrs Lee hadn't. "Everyone keeps their gardens too neat." she complained. "I need to see the weeds." ... and then she noticed ... "Your garden isn't neat!" she said (Hey, Beverley's a very busy woman, and not anal either) "May I look around?"

How could she say no!

And that's when Old Mrs Lee said, after many long hard minutes inspecting weeds "You know, I think you don't need that operation afterall." She then got Beverley to pick various weeds (she has no idea what they're called but can show you) and told her how to cook and mix them into an old Chinese tonic.

Beverley, naturally, given her perchant for old Italian strega recipes, did as she was told ...

... and within a fortnight she was no longer bug-eyed, her blood showed vast improvement and within a month her doctor took her off the waiting list.

Today, nearly a decade later, Beverley still has her thyroid and every sunset is out there in her garden watering her weeds and nibbling on the ones Old Mrs Lee told her to nibble on, and every six months or so, when she feels "a little thyroid-y", she mixes herself up another batch of her Old Chinese Thyroid Tonic.

So how can this sort of history just be thrown away so casually?