Sickness

             My wife Betty endured physical problems as well as polycystic kidneys for a major portion of her life beginning at the age of five.  I believe she could echo these words by Flannery O’Connor.  “I have never been anywhere but sick.  In a sense sickness is a place, more instructive than a long trip to Europe, and it’s always a place where there’s no company, where nobody can follow.”  She added these words, amazing in light of the suffering she endured: “Sickness before death is a very appropriate thing and I think those who don’t have it miss one of God’s mercies.”