Love in the Time of Cholera

I have been sick. Started with a sore throat that quickly went to my chest. For over a week I have been coughing. A horrible, deep, painful, persistent cough. I have gotten very little sleep and have had no energy. Zip. No batteries whatsoever. And then Martha got it too. For the last week she has been sleeping in the living room, upright in a recliner. Being she also has asthma, it is the only way she can breathe.

On Thursday night we went to see the Billy Joel/Elton John concert. Our daughters had given us tickets for Mother’s Day last year. The concert had been postponed twice and we really didn’t want to miss it. It had been a long time since we had been out for a special evening. So we went armed with our cough drops, water and tissues. The music drowned out our constant hacking. Great concert though.

And then last night both our daughters had plans for the evening and they were sleeping at friends’ houses. It seems that all the kids usually hang out at our house. But we were about to have the house to ourselves. Alone. Martha and I live for nights like that. We have a small house and it is hard to find intimate moments when the girls are home.

And so there we were, alone, wheezing and sniffling. We cuddled up on the couch, wrapped in blankets. Trying for some romance, I got up and made some strawberries with whipped cream and poured NyQuil into wine glasses. We toasted to our future better health. Then we started to fall asleep on each other’s shoulders. I went to bed. She went to her chair. It was 7:55.

*sigh*