Sunday, May 13, 2012

Happy Mother’s Day Through a Closed Door . . .

Mother’s Day has always been very special in my family.  We usually meet at my brother’s house, where we visit and play games.  My nephew Tyler usually makes a dessert and I make homemade ice cream.  And we all gather in the living room while Mom opens her cards and gifts.

This year, it’s even more special – for obvious reasons.

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But this will be my view of Mother’s Day this year.  It’s a rotten picture, but there is a story behind it . . .

Ryan’s girlfriend Emily stopped by our house on Thursday between shifts at the vet clinic where she works.  While she was there, she came down with a nasty stomach bug.  Ryan said he had never seen anyone throw up so often in such a short time.  He ended up taking her to her doctor, where she got a shot and a prescription to calm her nausea.  Unfortunately, all of this happened after they had shared a soft drink from the same bottle (along with the obvious swapping of saliva when they greeted each other).  So we figured it was inevitable that Ryan would be next, even though I aired out the house and sterilized everything I could get my hands on.

Even though it has been more than three months since Mom’s last chemo, it wasn’t worth taking a chance that her resistance was still low.  So I called my parents and my brother and told them that we would give them the gift of good health this year – by staying away from them.  That picture above is a shot of my parent’s front door – those are my feet in the reflection and that brown envelope that you can barely see in the corner is full of your happy e-mails of support (along with a card from me).  I called this morning and told them I would drop them off after church.  I would much rather miss a Mother’s Day gathering and have a healthy mom.

The irony in all of this is that more than three days later, Ryan still hasn’t caught the bug.  We may have dodged the bullet – hopefully it will stay that way.

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you – and thanks again for the part you played in making ours special this year.

3 comments:

  1. good move. Hope your Mom has a great day anyway. fyi, stomach bugs that have ben going around here seem to have about 1-1/2 weeks gestation period so he may still come down with it unfortunately. Hope he doesn't tho!

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  2. Better safe then sorry!
    There is so much warmth in your stories, I am so glad your mom is doing so well!

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  3. It really is just another day and you all can still have your special celebration on any other day! You were very wise not to take any chances with your Mom. I wish your Mom continued blessings for healing.

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