The Folktales are all true

She loaded the case of Squibb Heavy Mineral oil into the country house pantry. She was excited. I was her captive. She had a diagnosis "distended colon" and instructions. Eleven ounces three times a day to liquefy the intestine so it will shrink. This was to be tapered over the course of 6-8 or 10-12 weeks. I was 16. It was disgusting, and turned my insides into a smelly, oily orange waste and permeated everything. She would come into the bathroom after I had used it and scream "it's disgusting!" This was her circus and she finally got what she wanted. Rubber sheets on my bed, diapers, and grounded. How could I go anywhere? I would need a bathroom kit to clean up the mess. Even more frightening, I was becoming tired, weak and depressed. I was 16. Did I mention I was sixteen and it was Spring. Just like the folktales I was a maiden. A budding human female. That was what she was trying to stop. It had nothing to do with my bowels. "Your guts were the strongest part of you!" My friend Larry said to me years later. She wanted to remove my large intestine. It was too large! A colostomy was plan B. My biological father was six foot four and Sonia was four foot eleven. I had his guts! She couldn't control them. (me). I ran away! She kept trying to get me to come back to see the doctor. I ran further and further until I was safe in Providence Rhode Island. Then I hid in the hollow tree in the forest wearing a coat of many furs, until I was 40.

 (see the Grimm's tale Thousandfurs, Munchausen's by Proxy)

Part of the annual cycle is the story comes knocking. Just like my uncle talking about escaping the concentration camps after a few drinks.