Cough, Cough, Hack, Sniff!
Saturday April 25, 2015
I’ve been sick.
No, my final illness is not upon me – at least I don’t think so – but I am on day 31 of the longest and worst cold/flu/infection that I have ever experienced. I’ve cancelled innumerable appointments and stayed home most of the time, coughing a dry, incessant, uncontrollable barking cough. I even stayed home on Palm Sunday and again on Easter Day, if you can imagine!
I’ve had two rounds of antibiotics, the second of which is just now complete, and I hope that this will be the end of it. A few more days will tell.
There were a couple of times in all this long journey that I thought it was done, and I attempted to resume my normal life. For instance, a dear friend died, and I was able to lead his family through the formal Interment of Ashes service. Last Sunday, thinking I was really over it, I presided at worship in St. Margaret’s church, and preached the sermon. I felt fairly strongly the presence and guiding hand of God in the process, and afterwards many people told me that the sermon was insightful and helpful for them.
But almost immediately afterward, the illness returned with a vengeance, and I’ve remained knocked down by it ever since.
One of the saddest consequences of all the sickness is that I have hardly seen my newest grandchild and her one-year-old big brother. Though her parents said that I would be more than welcome to drop in, I couldn’t bring myself to insert a bunch of germs into their home life. True, they themselves have been passing a cold around their home, but the situation didn’t warrent an extra influx of nasty microorganisms, so I’ve stayed away.
There is, however, a silver lining:
Lying around at home day after day, I was able to complete a major segment of this blog: the story of our recent stay in Grenada. If you haven’t already done so, I commend that you go and have a look. The cover page can be found here. I’m still adding to the photo album of the trip, because people do love pictures, but for me the art and the entertainment is in the writing. I hope that people will read the blog itself, and in doing so live out the adventure with us.
Next week, God willing, I plan to run down to Toronto briefly, to attend the ordination of someone whom I first knew as a young man, forty-two years ago in the West Indies (I do seem to have a West Indian theme going these days, don’t I!?). There may be a tale to tell about all this after I return. 1
FOOTNOTES:
1 There is no tale to tell, because I ended up being too ill to go.