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April 22, 2022 - The Big "C" Word

April started with a BANG! On March 31, I conducted the Women With Heart annual luncheon and fundraiser. Not feeling 100% several days before, I was dosing myself with over the counter meds for cold symptoms. Then, on Friday, April 1, I went to my doctor. He did a Covid test and I was positive. Ed had been having some shortness of breath for the days preceding, so we did the home test on him, and yep, he was positive, too.


My symptoms subsided in a week. Ed’s became worse. To the cancer center for fluids twice, the ER once, and fluids at home once. Finally, he got a blood transfusion, which had tremendous effect on his energy and breathing. He has been suffering from Covid for about four weeks. Doctor thinks I got it from him, as his symptoms had been going on long before mine.


I’m happy to say that he is regaining strength, and received a Chemo treatment yesterday (April 21). Now, we wait for the inevitable side effects.

When we focus on our own problems, we often forget the struggles of others; they become the blurry background in our picture. During our efforts to keep our heads above water, my sister Anita calls. Her husband, Paul has just been diagnosed with stage four liver cancer. While I believe she is the most faithful, and “God-fearing” among the three sisters, the one who has been lighting candles, saying novenas, and praying for us, I now pray that her faith will not be shaken. I think she is preparing herself, or so she says, for a life without Paul. In one way, I see that as a total surrender to what she may deem as “God’s will”. On the other hand, I see it as a total surrender. Period. A place I refuse to go. Guess we are a contrast in active faith.


Pivoting to a recent conversation, I had with my granddaughter about praying, and how to pray. I am not confident that Emily is instructing her kids in this area, so I quizzed Olivia about how she would pray. Realizing that she was very much a novice, I instructed her thus:


1. Every prayer should start with gratitude. Thank God for all of the blessings in your life – your family, your friends, your school, your country; the roof over your head, the food on your table, etc.

2. Next, ask for forgiveness for anything you may have done, said, or thought that might not be pleasing to God. Ask yourself if you have followed the Golden Rule.

3. The third component of prayer is the petition – ask God to help you, heal you or others; ask, focusing on others, then ask how you can be a vessel for God to use for the good.

4. The last thing is to acknowledge that your requests and your hopes are subject to God’s final word – that you ask that His will be done, not yours, and that you are given the strength and grace to accept His will.

5. Every prayer should end, giving the Son and the Father the glory.


Spring has sprung here in the South. To portray it in a poet’s terms: Icicles weep over the departure of winter. The trees bloom into kites, and Mother Nature tickles the ribs of small children as she removes her fur hat and dons her Easter bonnet. And it is Spring. 

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