my earliest memory

My parents were Methodist missionaries in Japan. As the youngest of five children, I wasn't alive during their first five years in Japan. Well, technically, I suppose you could say I was alive while they were in Japan as I was conceived just before they came home on furlough in 1958. I was born at Duke University Hospital. When I was ten months old, the family returned to Japan. I'm told I learned to walk on board the ship that sailed from California to Japan, but I have no memory of that.

The first thing I remember is being stung by a bee! I stepped on a bathroom scrub brush, and there was a bee on the scrub brush. Or at least I think that's what happened. I remember it hurt! And I remember running (screaming & crying) to my Daddy, who soothed and comforted me. And I remember him tenderly examining the bottom of my foot. But that's all I remember about that.

I couldn't have been more than three or four when this happened, so I wonder about being out of eyesight of an adult. And where was everyone else? I just don't remember.