Marcella's Quilt

We receive many thoughtful and lovely gifts throughout the year, especially during the Christmas season. I love the home-made treats and ornaments, as well as gift cards to favorite restaurants, teas, coffees and wines that remind me of happy times with the gift givers.

On Saturday, we celebrated  Christmas with the extended Hennessey family. A delicious buffet hosted by son and daughter-in-law Scott and Meggan was followed by gifts. Bob and I received an unexpected family heirloom from daughter Janet and her husband Mark.

Mark's mother, Marcella Schlichting, died on May 6, 2016. She was an accomplished, old-fashioned homemaker and matriarch of a large family. She included quilting among her many skills, and last spring her children shared her collection of quilts among them.

I was brought to tears when I opened the large box containing one of Marcella's beautiful quilts. The quilt is a work of art, constructed of triangles pieced together by hand to make a kaleidoscopic floral masterpiece.

Although this lovely creation belongs in a museum where more people could view and appreciate it, it has already given me so much pleasure. I immediately laid it out on the guest room bed. The next morning, I spread it out in our bedroom and have slept under it now for two nights. It is light in weight, warm and comfortable.

I've always thought of myself as somewhat "crafty" and artistic, but I look at the mistakes and uneven stitching in my current project and know that Marcella would never have completed any piece of work without correcting the errors. Each of her stitches is perfect, every triangle, octagon and star a miniature masterpiece.

I am honored to be getting to know Marcella through her exquisite work.

Influenza A

We got home from Hawaii early Sunday morning and I immediately got to work on laundry, which I polished off by noon. Spent the rest of the day watching football and the evening ended with what was immediately dubbed the "Minnesota Miracle".

With 10 seconds left in the game, the Vikings were behind 24-23, quarterback Case Keenum threw a 61-yard pass caught down the sideline by Stefon Diggs. Unbelievable! Like other Minnesotans, I was still grinning when I woke  up feeling somewhat sick with "flu-like symptoms" (all of them!) on Tuesday morning.

I spent most of the afternoon resting and, by bedtime, I wondered how I'd make it through the night. My sleep was fitful and troubled by weird dreams of myself as an older teenager. I remember lying on the couch in our living room during the Christmas holidays of 1968, feverish and so sick, unwilling and unable to move. It was called the Hong Kong flu , and  though I thought I was dying, I've really had a pretty good half-century since then.

I am considered immune suppressed because of the infusion I get every eight weeks for  Crohn's Disease so I checked in with my gastroenterologist's office. I was advised to get a flu test and sure enough the result was positive for Influenza A. On Wednesday evening, I left Fairview Highland with a prescription for Tamiflu and another for Ventolin.

I didn't read much positive press on Tamiflu but by the next morning I was no longer waiting for death. The Ventolin has helped me breathe easier and while the wheezing isn't gone, it's a lot better. Unfortunately, Bob seems to have developed similar symptoms and his doctor put him on Tamiflu as well. 

Too bad this year's flu vaccine was next to useless.