What day is it?

2020 has been such a strange year. Accuse me of stating the obvious. I’m guilty. Perhaps you have also struggled to keep track of days, even weeks, like I have. In March, April, and May I crossed off every planned event on my calendar, then only added a handful of activities during the rest of the year. Still, 2020 has not been boring in my world.

Today is December 31, always New Year’s Eve and my husband’s birthday since 1960. As of today, both of us have lived for six decades, so we’re celebrating. Small. At home. With the usual homemade dinner and a cake baked by my mom. We’re living much closer to Mom and the rest of the family than we were a year ago. Here’s the story that began in January 2020.

I repurposed the Christmas tree while Dave was at work today

After celebrating Christmas with both of our families and ringing in the New Year, we resumed our usual activity. Dentist and hair appointments, Bible studies and MOPS meetings, and Winners Walk Tall visits with the First Graders kept me busy. Dave served on our church’s administrative council and worked both in Wheeling, West Virginia, and in several newspaper locations in Northwest Ohio. He was to spend the last week of January doing work at the Findlay, Ohio newspaper, a recent acquisition of his employer. He didn’t get to do that.

On January 26, Dave made the four hour drive to Findlay, checked into his hotel, and had a stroke. He called me, unaware that anything was wrong. But I could tell and was able to get emergency responders sent to his room. After six days in the Findlay hospital, Dave was released with no need for therapy and no restrictions on his activity. A Cleveland Clinic neurologist was left speechless after she interviewed Dave a month later. The scan of his brain indicated no small stroke, and yet, he had very minimal lasting effects. “God took care of him,” I told her.

March of 2020 began with another week in Northwest Ohio. I stayed at Mom’s home in Upper Sandusky while Dave spent his days working in Findlay. We celebrated our 36th wedding anniversary on the 2nd and privately talked about possibly moving back to the area. Dave was not ready to retire, but wanted a different, less stressful environment. It had been over a year since my back surgery and I was still living with nerve damage. Perhaps it was time to move closer to family and into a one story house. We both kept follow-up appointments with doctors at Cleveland Clinic on March 13, the day we learned that people in our county had COVID-19.

Dave was tasked with getting the company’s employees out of the buildings and working from home. He and son Kyle each set up an office in our house. I never returned to the school and we no longer attended church in person. It was a beautiful Spring. I spent the days taking neighborhood walks, writing short blog posts, cooking lunch and dinner, making face masks for family and friends. I worked with passion on cleaning out closets and cupboards, throwing away, recycling, giving away whatever I did not think I would need in a new home…someday.

We did not travel, but talked to Mom and son Eric more than ever by phone. Sadness accompanied the passing of Mother’s Day, the cancelled Frisch Family Fish Fry, the cancelled Vent Cousins Corn Roast. Summer brought the plan to make our move into focus. Sharing our plan to move closer to family softened the difficulty of not visiting since March.

Aware that moving to a different county during the pandemic was tricky, being very sad about leaving so many friends and our home of 15 years, believing that this was an opportunity that we needed to take, Dave and I began making road trips to Findlay to find a new home. Our experience of buying and selling our houses became rather complicated, however it was accomplished. We made the move, together with son Kyle, to Hancock County, Ohio on the day before my 60th birthday. We celebrated the unseasonably warm day by eating cake with Mom on our sunny deck.

Dave and I entering our new house

Dave has settled into his new office, close enough for a trip home at lunch time. I enjoy being at home, love making meals for my family, and look forward to getting connected in our new community…someday. We’ve celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas differently this year, but we’ve celebrated the gifts of food, family, friends, and faith with deeper appreciation because of the strangeness of 2020.

What day is it? For me, it’s Thanksgiving Day. As I sat down with my coffee this morning, thankful that my sister-in-law with COVID is beginning to recover, I didn’t begin with a list of requests. As I sat silently for just a bit, New Year’s Eve gave way to Thanksgiving Day and I poured out my gratefulness for all of God’s goodness in 2020. We’ve gone through some difficulties. Jesus has been with us, shepherding us through.

With respect and empathy for you in whatever challenges, uncertainties, heartache, or difficulties you find yourself in, I want to gently encourage you. If this last day of 2020 finds you only being thankful for one thing, that the year is over, give thanks for that. Then allow yourself to notice the grace that has been poured out on you as you’ve walked through difficult days.

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Psalm 118:1