A childhood belief about rude bits

When my parents would take me grocery shopping at a small store in a nearby town I used to see a poster in the window listing the danger signs of cancer. I was about 8 years old and used to read that poster every week while my mother was checking out, even though I had no idea what cancer was but understood that it was BAD. When my breasts began to develop I thought I was growing the lumps mentioned on the poster. My Irish Catholic mother, probably one of the most narrow minded persons on the face of the earth, had never mentioned one word about maturation. For weeks (or months?), I was sure I was going to DIE and, because I had no emotional connection to my parents in any way, could not bring up the subject to them. It was only one of many of my life's disconnects brought about by my mother's rabid and repressive Catholicism. Believe me, there were many others. All religions should be banned.