Quote from Dorothy in The Operation
Sophia: I thought I heard you in here. What are you doing home? Dorothy: I'm all better, Ma. Rose: Oh, she is not. She's afraid to have the surgery because she has a phobia about hospitals. Dorothy: And do you know why I have that phobia? Because when I was five years old, I was left alone in the hospital on the day I was having my tonsils taken out. Sophia: I was in Cleveland at your Uncle Mario's funeral. Dorothy: Yeah, but Pop wasn't. Sophia: Of course not, he hated your Uncle Mario. Everyone hated your Uncle Mario. That's how he died. Twenty-three stab wounds during a block party and nobody saw a thing. Dorothy: Pop left a scared, sick five-year-old all alone at the hospital. Said he had to go to work. Sophia: He did have to go to work. How else could we have paid for the operation? Dorothy: All I know is, I was alone and terrified and I have never gotten over it. I still have that phobia about hospitals.