Before the rule change, my mother rarely if ever went to Communion because she was underweight and somewhat sickly due to poverty and insufficient medical care. She’d get dehydrated and pass out. In those days, most Catholics did not go to Communion every Sunday. Priests didn’t hand out dispensations easily. More than once, she passed out during Mass to the point where she was made to sit in the children’s pews on the outer aisle in back. (Children all went to 9:00 Mass and sat together, supervised by the sisters.)