Hurt No More
Before our marriage, Harry Parker, my husband, had known I was born with congenital insensitivity to pain and temperature.
I couldn’t feel burns, cuts, or broken bones.
Because of that, he had wrapped every sharp point in the house in soft foam padding, locked the water heater below 104°F, and insisted on standing beside me whenever I used a knife.
He used to say, “If you can’t feel the pain, I’ll feel it for you.”
That was until my cousin, Evelyn Lynch, moved in with us.
She said, “Jane, you can’t rely on Harry forever. You have to train your natural sense of danger.”
The first time, she pushed a bowl of steaming hot soup against my hand. The back of it blistered crimson, but she just turne