Last year my guys had the school schedule that had them off for over a month after Christmas. I love that schedule. I love any schedule where they are home, really. To help pass the time and to try to vaccinate ourselves against cabin fever, we ventured out to our local JoAnn's to find some crafty distractions. As we wandered up and down the rows with the boxed kits, my phone rang. It was Bo.
It was the phone call that really started it all.
She was worried about mom. Apparently, without me noticing, my mom had gotten a terrible cold sometime between Halloween and Thanksgiving. After recovering from the cold, there was a cough that lingered. A bad cough. A cough that would not let up and no over the counter medicine could cure. This was a cough that apparently kept getting worse over time, no matter how long my mom waited for it to just get better. But, she did wait. The holidays were coming and she wanted to get through those. She always works herself into overdrive during that time. There is actually an entire week called "Cookie Week" where she bakes a crazy amount of cookies to give to family and neighbors. So, maybe if we could just wait until after things settled down and she could rest, this nasty cough would heal itself.
Of course it did not heal itself. In fact it got much, much worse. Bo revealed to me on the phone that this cough of hers was so bad that it was keeping my parents up at night. She could not sleep lying down because it aggravated things. So she and my dad slept on the couch during the few continuous moments where she could breathe comfortably. My dad propped himself sitting up against the edge of the couch, and my mom propped herself up against him. They would doze off when her chest was calm, and then he would help her through when the cough came back to wake them up.
My mom was working as much as she could just to get sick time. Between the cold and the holidays, she had used up every hour she had. So, she would go to work feeling lousy until she could accrue some time off. Once she had earned those 8 hours of vacation, she took a day off to try to recover. It was a vicious cycle. One in which she never really got any rest at all.
Bo was calling doctor after doctor located around my mom's office to try to get her an appointment right away, and at a time where my mom didn't have to miss work. After a few attempts, she found a physician who could see her on January 6th; which was the first of many, many, many tender mercies to come.
We ended our phone call and the kids made their selections. In thinking back I still can't remember what activities we picked out. Things were kind of in a blur. It was just the beginning of the frustration of wanting so desperately to do something, but not being able to. Oh how little did I know.
We left the store and all I could think about was my parents trying to get some rest out in the family room. The two of them just leaning on each other trying to make it through the night. She beginning to cough, and he right beside her, rubbing her back and arms, trying to comfort her in spite of his worries. So sweet. Everyone knows that what they have is special. The two of them are the supreme example to me of everything good in marriage. They were married so, so young but really the odds were always in their favor. They had and still have what it takes to make things work. Even in the middle of an excruciatingly long night, in the face of no rest, they supported each other. Literally.
The story will continue.
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