Hope for Barbara: Holiday Postscript

I usually do a holiday blog post, but we didn't gather over the holidays, so there are no photos or occasions to review. We all kept our distance - Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's.

Tom and I went out to mom's on Christmas Eve to deliver gifts and food... I made some more of Grandma McCann's apple bars! You can't beat comfort food on a bitter cold day - and it was cold!

That was the extent of our Christmas.

We are all doing what we need to do to make sure that we can have celebrations in the future when this pandemic ends. From mom's perspective - she has been through a pandemic before...or rather an epidemic - when the polio virus was running rampant in the late 1940's. Mom recollected that Grandma and Grandpa did not take them off of the farm at all during those years for fear of picking up the polio virus. There were as many unknowns for awhile, but the only thing that they knew they could do was to keep to themselves and limit exposure. So that is what Grandma and Grandpa did - kept mom and her sisters safe on the farm.

Mom's health in 2020 has been great overall, and her doctor check-ups continue to show positive results. She is frail, but the cancer has been kept at bay, partly due to mom's great attitude and safe practices (wearing a mask, keeping distanced, not gathering) and partly due to continued prayers by family and friends. There is always room for prayer.

Carol, Barb and Rosemary, Class Reunion 2019

A sad as the holidays were this time around, there was a greater sadness in the family - mom's sister Carol passed in the morning on New Year's Day. Carol had a terrible infection in early December and had to be admitted into the hospital. There was a little bit of improvement by Christmas however I think her body was weary and her spirit was ready for some peace.

Our family gatherings won't be the same without Aunt Carol. She will be missed. In many ways she was the information conduit and family curator of photos, memorabilia and history. She was very social and the life of the party. At the Streator Class reunion in 2019, she knew just about everyone from each class and if she didn't know someone, then she was their best friend by the time the night was over. She even found a guy to swing her around the dance floor in her wheelchair.

Aunt Carol on the dance floor!

Aunt Carol was a great gift-giver. If she saw something that she thought you would like or enjoy, she bought it. Many of the Christmas ornaments on my tree are from her from over the years. I still have a large ceramic bunny coin bank that she gave me when I was 7 or 8 years old. She painted it purple because she knew I liked the color purple. She also put a nickel in it and told me that I was to keep that nickel in there no matter what. I think she even threatened to check the bunny bank every time she came to my house to make sure that the nickel was in there. Well, Aunt Carol, the nickel is still there.