Staying close during hard times
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH)--So many of us are missing out on family gatherings on Thanksgiving Day. I’m one of them. I’m the last of six kids, and 17 grandkids for my Dad, who I lost 22 years ago, and my now 92-year-old Mom, Patricia. I haven’t seen her in almost a year so today we used Zoom to share what we’re thankful.
“Look at you!, I when I saw my mom's face pop up on the screen.
These pictures are the last time I saw my mom in January at her assisted living facility near Chicago. In March, a pandemic sounded serious to her, but doable.
“Friends and I here thought maybe it would last a few weeks, so we could adjust to that, and that wasn't hard to think about,” Patricia Johansen, said. “We soon began to have no admittance of family.”
In May we almost lost her.
“You kept talking about vertigo but it wasn't vertigo, your heart was stopping,” I said. “Yes, that did happen,” she said casually.
She passed out and hit her head. She woke up and called for an ambulance.
“That led to a concussion and brain bleed and the discovery that I needed a pacemaker.”
Her doctor told us apparently God didn’t need her yet.
“We're in a day to day world. Do you have any wisdom for us during this time that you've taken out of these 9 months," I asked.
“For me, the faith that it’s going to be better. I do believe there is a purpose in all of this and what God's plan is I don't know. I do feel those who have been affected by this and it has to be so devastating to their lives. I'm very sad about that part.”
“What do you miss the most,” I wondered.
“Oh being with my family the gatherings, particularly tomorrow I will think about being with all my children and the grandchildren and observing all the interaction and the fun I see, the blessing of family.”