Throughout our city, wherever we went, we heard it.
In grocery stores, libraries, Target and WalMart – even during church services where it occurred in stereo sound – one person in the aisle echoed by someone across the room.
I called it The Great Cough of 2016.
In spite of our vitamins, clean eating and daily spraying through the house with Lysol, my son and I both caught the Christmas bug.
With all our plans for the holidays suddenly deleted, we dragged our pitiful selves to our respective recliners. The cat glanced back and forth as we coughed, trying to rid our bodies of what the doctors called “Upper Respiratory Infection.”
So Christmas plans changed. None of our usual holiday foods. I wasn’t cooking anything except chicken soup. Unwrapped presents waited in Amazon boxes. Worse, we were not able to spend Christmas with the family in Oklahoma. This was the first year since I served as a missionary that I did not see my mother for Christmas.
But we could not force ourselves into the car for a five hour trip. And why take our germs across the state line to risk the health of the entire family?
We found an urgent care open on a Sunday – bless the hearts of that staff ! We armed ourselves with legal drugs – thank you to the hard-working pharmacy staff ! We stayed in bed and slept late – when the coughing didn’t wake us up.
Then Christmas happened in spite of illness. My son’s girlfriend and her family invited us for a delicious meal and an evening of fun – playing table games with hygienic gloves on, trying not to cough on anyone.
The next day, we piled cough drops into my purse and escaped the sick house for a movie. I highly recommend “Collateral Beauty” with Will Smith’s poignant performance of a man dealing with intense grief. The twist at the end gave us plenty of conversation starters as we managed an evening breakfast at IHOP.
Then we collapsed into our recliners again – still coughing. The Grinch tried to steal Christmas from Cindy Lou Who while George Bailey learned how to live a wonderful life.
Our Christmas may have looked different and not what we planned but we survived it. The promised Messiah still came. The beauty of Luke chapter two remained solid and the twinkle lights on our tree reflected a glowing angel at the top.
Hope survived our Christmas changes as gradual healing brought us upright to face a new year. The Great Cough of 2016 did not win, because Christmas is not about food, health, presents or travel.
Christmas incorporates the beauty of music, joy, light and a Love that forever transforms lives. No matter how we celebrate the season, the root of its beginning cannot change. And in that security, we find hope in the eternal promise – Immanuel – God with us.
©2017 RJ Thesman, Author of the Reverend G Trilogy http://amzn.to/1rXlCyh
I remember being so sick one Christmas as a kid. My parents still carted me along to the extended family Christmas (guess they weren’t about to miss it just cuz of me). I was isolated in an upstairs bedroom where I could clearly hear all my cousins having fun and smell the food. Smelling the food was the worst since I had the stomach flu. I was too sick to care about my cousins, but I was jealous. Probably more than you wanted to read. TMI, TMI.
Oh, gracious – what a sad memory for you. We couldn’t even smell, so that wasn’t a problem for us. Certainly a Christmas to remember – for you and me.
BTW, as I’ve said previously, I am so very sorry you had such a miserable sickness at any time, but esp. at Christmas. I guess I was just telling my story to commiserate–either that, or I just can’t help telling stories. Smile. Glad you’re well now.
Much better, but still coughing. Thanks for the comments.
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