The Sentinel, Reflections 201219

The Sentinel All the news that's fit to print and some that's not. This picture is Joyce on Christmas eve of 2017 when she was still in the hospital. She had just had an encephalogram that shaved big chunks out of her hair to give the probes contact with her brain to measure brain waves. She told me to bring her a nice sweater for Chiristmas and to shave the rest of her head. I think even with no hair she was still beautiful!
Christmas Past Joyce and I have had some fine memories of Christmases as children and grownups. There have been a few that were sad, but overall we have been blessed. This coming Christmas will be one of just two in the last forty six that Joyce has not hosted a gala affair. One was 2017 when she was in the hospital. 2017 she had been in the hospital for over two months. I visited with her all of those days. I never put up a Christmas tree until Christmas eve when I knew for sure she would come home at all. This year it will be just the second with us not hosting the day.	2020 I think this year is one we all could have done without. The working man’s/ working woman’s kitchen table economy has been a never-ending horror story. Businesses have closed, people have lost their jobs, food pantries around the country have been overwhelmed. Grocery stores have had continual shortages on different items like toilet paper in particular. The pandemic hit this country hard! Many more people have died due to mismanagement than should have died. Lately it has been like 9/11 every day with the number of deaths. We were told the pandemic would be over by Easter, that was a lie. Then it was July 4, but that was a lie. Then it was going to be over by October, another lie. When this is going to be over, no one knows for sure. I have hope that we will turn the corner soon and life will return to what has to be a new normal, whatever that may be.	Hope Someday, I don’t know when; the sun will come up into a clear blue sky. The day will be comfortably warm and prosperity will be the order of the day. People will be joyous, children will fill the playgrounds with laughter. Hospitals will no longer be overwhelmed with Covid cases. Moms and dads will be transporting kids to events with their friends. We’ll look back on 2020 and say, “holy cow, how did that happen? How did we ever get through that travesty? Thank God we won’t ever see that again.”