First finding out

It was when I was when I was 9 that I remember the phone ringing.  My mother picked up the corded phone - (yes the kind attached to the wall with the rotary dial) and began to get very emotional.
She had barely hung when I found myself bent over in the kitchen.  My aunt had called to tell her that my cousin had just been diagnosed with scoliosis and that it was hereditary.

As she examined my back she started to panic.   She obsessively checked my back every second she could. For the following week, I found myself paraded in front of neighbors, relatives and anyone else willing to look - all confirming at something was not right.

I guess at one point we landed in a doctors office for the official diagnosis. I had scoliosis.