Holiday Heart

Thanksgiving has come and gone, and I must say what an experience! It was so filled with laughter, love and great food. Personally, I was looking forward to feeling all the genuine love and laughter from my family, because it had been so long with everyone together in the same room, and also some in-laws I was meeting for the first time.

Warming my heart

I must admit it was simply amazing; I loved and laughed as hard as I could. I mean laughing until my belly hurt. Sitting around the table updating one another on life and how it's been since covid. Sharing stories and different journeys we've been on and new adventures life is taking us on. I embraced it all because I longed for that feeling for over a year now.

Family came from everywhere: the Virgin Island, New York, Florida and Texas. My favorite part was how my family and in-laws shared love to one another, as if they knew each other for years. It was a natural agape love in the house all weekend, which warmed my heart in a way I never knew it could.

Taking extra precaution

The one thing that put me at peace and made it easy to interact with no worries or stress, was everyone had either gotten tested for the coronavirus and came back negative, and the other half were fully vaccinated with a negative test. I can talk about all the love, laughter and food, but being a woman that deals with health issues and a weak immune system, I have to handle things differently than others and take extra precaution.

Without that peace of mind, to be honest, Thanksgiving would have gone totally different from me. I would have isolated myself out of fear. Not wanting to get sick, having to suffer in any way. My family was very good with taking precautions and looking after me. They made sure everything was cleaned and sanitized. If I did not feel like getting out of the bed, they checked on me, making sure I was hydrated with food.

Thankful this year was different

The thing is when I get sick, it's not over-the-counter medication I can take and all is well in a couple of days. I'm limited to only so many things in the drug store. I have to call my doctor and see what I can take, and most of the time it's not much. If it gets too bad, I go to the emergency room. Being that there are not many medications to relieve me, and depending on how bad it is determines how long I stay. Sometimes that can become overbearing and depressing.

Last Thanksgiving I was in the hospital for 5 days, no time at all with my family because everything was still shut down because of Covid-19. No one could come in the hospital but one family member, and once you put that person's name on the list it was no taking them off. That made it hard for me mentally, but I made it through. So thankful this year was totally different.

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