There once lived a girl who was the middle child of a large family; she had at least three older siblings and at most three younger ones. I say at least three older because the girl’s mother had suffered a still birth and two infant deaths before finally a son was born (then the rest) who survived past childhood. The girl’s parents worked in traditional folk medicine, this meant the kids were around lots of herbs and dried things (like baby mice carcasses, snakes, mushrooms) when they were younger. The girl’s father died when she was 10. I am not sure how old he was when he died, but let’s take a guess at mid 40s. Altogether, the parents had three sons, two daughters, a fourth son and then a final daughter at the mother’s ripe old age of 40.