The Story of "Aunt Nattie"

Hello Permies!



In the process of creating the natural medicine aspect of PEP, we have struggled to communicate what is natural medicine in the context of SKIP and how does it apply to daily life. Jennifer & Paul came up with a lovely character to create a narrative about natural medicine as part of the PEP journey.

So, as part of composing the natural medicine aspect of SKIP, we would like to introduce the fictitious character:

Aunt Nattie!

Aunt Nattie has:

has a rich stock of over-the-counter stuff (very natural)

is savvy to google and has opinions on which information on the internet is stupid

will pick you up at the hospital and bring you home

will wait for you at the hospital when you get treatments

will slap that donut out of your pie hole

believes deeply in “food as medicine”

has a rich collection of simple herbal concoctions she has harvested and prepped herself

is ready to administer first aid

knows the best technique to pull out a tick

has a fresh salve for that scrape

sneaks greens into all of your food

has heard it all - no need to hold back

passionate about your health

can give you a good idea of whether you should go to the doctor/hospital

is a great cook

insists on organic or better

is keen on wildcrafting / foraging

has a huge permaculture garden - with lots of herbs

We would love your feedback!

What are other features that you would love to see in Aunt Nattie?
What can we add to her character?
What feature do you love about your "Aunt Nattie"?

Can explain and show you how herbs and essential oils help you get healthy  - without recruiting you to an MLM OR feeling the need to convince you the remedy is of a supernatural nature

When Paul was describing Aunt Nattie it reminded me a lot of my older sister.

My sister is 40 and she has "seen it all". She has worked as:
- Security for large City's subway transportation network
- Security for large City's hospital
- Prison guard for one of Canada's largest penitentiaries
- RCMP office
- Respiratory Therapist (at home services, STARS, an NICU)

She also has a family of her own: husband and 5 year old son

My sister is always the one on camping/hiking/biking trips that has a fully stocked First Aid Kit and knows how to use it
She has an excellent knowledge of early childhood development and knows the important nutritional aspects, physiological aspects, and phycological aspects to focus on during different stages of development
She know when to call bullshit and will take the time to explain to you the fundamental systems interactions that are involved the treatment/diagnosis she is using
She always has salves/ointments/treatments for common childhood afflictions on hand (rashes/allergies/cut/burns/swelling) and either makes it herself or knows the purpose of every ingredient  
She will tell you when you need to seek medical advice or when she thinks you might need to seek a second opinion from another medical professional
If you're ever not able to make it to a hospital, she's the next best thing to have around - She's literally pulled a man out of a burning vehicle
If I have have a child, I want her next to me yelling at me to "push" and elbowing incompetent medical staff out of the way
It's hard to be embarrassed about your personal ailments after hearing her stories form working at hospitals/prisons/transit
Not afraid to tell you things that might be hard to hear

 

 

Lives in your neighborhood.
Looks like a relative.
Looks like someone else’s relative.
Wears a mask in permies.
Is always there when you need a friend.
Will hensit for you and help distribute extra eggs.
Brings organic food to potluck supper.
Shares the recipe if asked.
Has a little library by her door.

Aunt Natty is who I want to be when I grow up. Okay, so I'm 60 already? There's still time!

Dances in the rain. Has a sauna and a cold water bath.

-can speak as properly as a grammer teacher, or cuss like a sailor (depending on the situation) 😂

Aunt Nattie-
Knows that one secret to aging well is to keep moving, avoid sitting too much and staying flexible.   She knows that humans are prone to slow down and let gravity take over as we age and works everyday to resist that.  We must be intentional about maintaining strength and flexibility.  Don't call it exercise.  Call it building resilience!

-Performs arithmetic sums by drawing large looping numerals in the air with her fingers.

-Laughs with her mouth wide open and head thrown back, braying like a wasp-stung donkey.

-Knows who put the bop in the bop shoo-bop, still not certain who put the ram in the rama-lama ding-dong.

Jim Stafford wrote a tribute song to Aunt Nattie, but he mispelled her name as "Hattie". The corrected version is:

Black water Nattie lived back in the swamp
Where the strange green reptiles crawl
Snakes hang thick from the cypress trees
Like sausage on a smokehouse wall
Where the swamp is alive with a thousand eyes
An' all of them watching you
Stay off the track to Nattie's Shack in the back of the Black Bayou

Way up the road from Nattie's Shack
Lies a sleepy little Okeechobee town
Talk of swamp witch Nattie lock you in when the sun go down
Rumors of what she'd done, rumors of what she'd do
Kept folks off the track of Nattie's shack
In the back of the Black Bayou

One day brought the rain and the rain stayed on
And the swamp water overflowed
Skeeters and the fever grabbed the town like a fist
Doc Jackson was the first to go
Some say the plague was brought by Nattie
There was talk of a hangin' too
But the talk got shackled by the howls and the cackles
From the bowels of the Black bayou

Early one morn 'tween dark and dawn when shadows filled the sky
There came an unseen caller on a town where hope run dry
In the square there was found a big black round
Vat full of gurgling brew
Whispering sounds as the folk gathered round
"It came from the Black Bayou"

There ain't much pride when you're trapped inside
A slowly sinkin' ship
Scooped up the liquid deep and green
And the whole town took a sip
Fever went away and the very next day the skies again were blue
Let's thank old Nattie for savin' our town
We'll fetch her from the Black Bayou

Party of ten of the town's best men headed for Nattie's Shack
Said Swamp Witch magic was useful and good
And they're gonna bring Nattie back
Never found Nattie and they never found the shack
Never made the trip back in
There was a parchment note they found tacked to a stump
Said "don't come lookin' again".

Aunt Nattie stopped by the other day and say how rough and abraded my skin is and suggested I add a few drops of Tea Tree essential oil to the peppermint salve I was making.  It was great to visit with her and learn the healing properties of mint and tea tree as I made my first salve.  I've been using it for a couple of days now and my face is starting to heal.  I love Aunt Nattie and hope she visits often!

Advanced Aunt Nattys, especially if she's living in a remote area where medical help is hard to come by, may also need to know enough about mainstream medicine to know when a doctor is needed or not. Right on the border of natural and mainstream medicine here. Her first aid kit might include things like a sphygmomanometer (blood pressure monitor), a pulse oximeter (measures the oxygen concentration in the blood), and some urine test sticks (checks for all sorts of things in urine). A kit like this can be put together for under £100 in the UK, not sure about in the US.
Using any of these things is very easy. Knowing how to interpret the results appropriately and safely takes wisdom and study.
But I can imagine in a remote situation how useful it would be for Aunt Natty to be able to call a doctor and give them the numbers when she wasn't sure if someone needed to see a doctor or not. Also useful when she KNOWS they need to see a doctor and is trying to convince the doctor of that (our situation here in the UK).