purple skin

Mom has a huge bruise on the back of her hand.
"Mom, what happened, how did you get that bruise." I'm holding her hand in mine, the bruise covers the whole back of her hand, it is purple, yellow, and green.
"That's not a bruise, I don't know what you're talking about."
"Mom, your hand is purple."
"That's not a bruise, people can have different colors of skin, you know."

I'm worried - yet I'm laughing on the inside.

Here is the second grade teacher part of my mother popping out. She is reaching way back in her mind to teach me all about our "under-under-wear." She would teach her second graders that, just like we can all have different color underwear, we can all have different color skin.

Yes Mom, but purple is an underwear color, not skin color.