Glad for a Break So I Can Heal and Get My Life Back

We are on Spring Break this week from my graduate classes. I finished teaching just as I contracted Covid and then spent five days in the hospital. So, this week is a welcome chance to rest my body. I have missed three weeks of classes, but I did keep up some of the reading, and I will return to classes next week, fully read up and ready to rumble.

We had planned a trip to Edisto Island for this week. I had even reserved an Airbnb near the ocean, which would only give us half the money spent to cancel. But, by God’s grace, the apartment had been overbooked for this week, so they canceled our reservation and returned the whole payment. I was very glad because Douglas had COVID-19, and then while I was in the hospital, he had a rebound of COVID-19. Neither of us could have taken on the five-to-six-hour drive to South Carolina, and when we arrived, we would have simply stayed in the apartment, ordering food through Doordash or Uber Eats.

My husband had to buy an N95 mask to come to the hospital to bring me home because we don’t have family near us, and I just joined a new church. I couldn’t ask anyone to put their health in danger with Douglas sick, which is also why I didn’t ask my children to come more than an hour’s drive to simply drop me in from of the house.

These last three weeks have reminded me that life can change quickly, and you can find yourself alone and without a support group. We live so far from children and grandchildren that we must rethink possibly moving closer to family.

So, this week, I will pay bills (I must teach Douglas how to do so) and rest as much as possible so that next week, I can take back my life and move forward. It’s hard to be sick, but it’s life for two seventy-somethings. We learned a lot about how much we depend on each other. It was difficult being in the hospital with my husband unable to visit me, but thanks be to God, we made it through another struggle with our love and faith intact.