My sister Paula is six years older than me. Paula was my mother’s eldest and I was my father’s eldest (we have different fathers). All through growing up, my mother’s mother would ask Paula how much she loved her, and Paula always answered with the saying, “I love you a bushel and a peck, and a hug around the neck. That’s how much I love you!” I so wish Paula were able to recite that now, because I love her a bushel and a peck.

I truly miss my sister. She has Alzheimer’s Disease and has lived in a care facility for many years. The disease has progressed to the final stage and she can’t really communicate.

Since the pandemic struck, she’s become bedridden. Six days ago, she was diagnosed with Covid-19. I’m grateful because the facility knows how to treat the virus, with both prescription medications and over-the-counter supplements. Because of the pandemic, none of her family, including her husband, Jody, or their children and grandchildren, have been able to visit her, although the facility was allowing her husband to see her through the window now and then. But that, too, has ceased. Jody has received daily phone updates, which helps a little. But it’s incredibly hard on him. Until the pandemic struck, he drove over an hour each way =daily= in order to see her, and he isn’t in the best of health himself.

Paula’s been holding her own with the virus, but today (as I write this on January 12) she has a mild fever. This, of course, worries us all, and we’ve been praying, the best and only thing we can actually do for her. 

Thankfully we have scripture to fall back on.

Here’s one of my favorites:

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