Mom & Dad

RickW

WMSTR Lifetime Members
WMSTR Lifetime Member
Rollag family,

I got a "please come immediately" call from my mother at 1AM this morning, and my father tested plus for plague2020 this afternoon. He checks many high-risk boxes, and should the present symptoms persist the timetables for transition to end-of-life living arrangements will be greatly accelerated. Should things go badly, there are a lot of loose ends that will be difficult to tie up...

Please pray for my family, and please be intentional about having the hard conversations and planning ahead for the difficult things that will eventually come to all of us. As hard as they are, those discussions are much easier to have in advance than when decisions must be made in the very near term...

I look forward to the fall woodcutting each year. A lot... But since I was the one that got the call and because I'm not about to treat my Dad like -he- is the disease at a time when he felt humiliated and vulnerable, I will not be in a position to attend without posing risk of perpetuating this infernal thing that's made the past year so crummy...

May we learn well from the present hardships,

~Rick W.
 
Rick I'm sorry for you and your family. I'll pray for all of you. This crummy year keeps on giving.....hang in there and know that your Rollag family is in your corner.
 
Rick,

I am sorry to hear the news. You and your family will be in my prayers.
Family has to come first, there will be wood to cut at Rollag another day.
As Ray said, your Rollag family is and will be here for you.

Jerry Christiansen
 
So sorry to hear Rick. Take care of things at home. That always comes first.

Your father and family are in our prayers.
 
After loosing both my parents, I would give anything to have the opportunity to spend more time with either one of them. My prayers and hope for a recovery go to your family and your Dad. Like most things at Rollag, there is usually another day or year to do it. Consider yourself blessed that you were given this time to spend with your folks. Take care, know that your family is being prayed for.
 
Dad's doing pretty well--his mobility has been slowly getting hit by other issues over the past decade, so last week it didn't take much extra to push things past the point of needing immediate help. Vitals are good, no significant respiratory issues, numbers are showing that he's winning as of yesterday's update, and his main complaints so far as I've heard are about a lack of productive work to do and concern that the things he was responsible for are not going undone...

I'm flippin' proud of my Dad. His concern for others, and his desire and effort to be a net positive are things that I admire, and hope to carry on.

Mom has since scored plus also, about the time that dad did, and is largely without symptom, thankfully. Being holed up out of respect for others seems to be taking a toll on me, but today was a good day--went on a cooking binge making bread and beef stew, cornish pasties soon...
 
Update: Dad's probably coming home soon. Getting strength back to handle the unavoidable stairs in their home is sort of the big obstacle. Had some unrelated or distantly related issues that have been slowing the process, but those seem to be getting resolved. Dad's one of those rare birds (maybe not so rare in this community...) who's motivated by contributing and serving others. Not being able to tend to the physical needs of the homestead has been driving him a little bit batty.

Mom's doing pretty well. I think I underestimated how hard the bug hit her. My Mom's an emotional Energizer Bunny. If it were to rain feces, she'd respond with excitement about how well the flowers would grow this year. I adore that quality in her, but it makes it hard sometimes to get an accurate read on how she's doing...

If I may be allowed to editorialize a bit, I think that this virus thing has kinda been a bit of a perfect storm in terms of kicking us in rural(ish) USA in the groin. We spent most of the last six months hearing accounts of woe and hardship, yet not really experienced it. The tale of the boy who cried wolf comes to mind. There's a whole lot of distrust and skepticism floating around in the air these days, and that makes it really hard to separate the grains of truth from the straw of hype and sensationalism. We've heard the boy cry wolf, and seen no wolf come for most of the summer.

I think that the wolf is here among us now, and need to be dealt with as such. May we recognize its presence and confront it, that the harm it would cause us would be limited...
 
Rick,

Thanks for sharing the update. I am happy to hear the news is good.

I believe you are correct about 'crying wolf'. Out here in the backwoods we avoided the bug for a long time, now it is here.

Later,
Jerry Christiansen
 
Dad's home! Stairs were conquered with aplomb. I think he might be a bit peeved that others were concerned... ;)

I seriously love and admire that old kraut. I can't begin to list what the man has taught me, and continues to teach me. It might be a few days out of fashion, but I'll proclaim to the whole flippin' world that I'm thankful for my Dad and my Mom. They gave so much to me, invested so seriously in me, that I'm not sure how I'm ever going to pay that debt back, or forward...
 
Back
Top