WHAT THANKSGIVING LOOKS LIKE ALA COVID 19 IN 2020

 

Not at all like I expected.  That's for sure!

At the beginning of 2020, I reminded my children, et al, that I had plans to retire from United Airlines on my 20th anniversary in August.  And...since I was going to reach a milestone anniversary on my 75th birthday in December, I invited all of them to join me for Thanksgiving 2020 during which time we would also celebrate my DIAMOND birthday.  

I had had such a wonderful experience when they surprised me the day after Thanksgiving in 2015 for my 70th birthday.  This time I was going to make sure it happened again.  "So, get your ducks in a row, make your reservations, get the time off work, and make sure you're here for a really bang-up celebration."  I was really looking forward to it!  

In the 21 Thanksgiving Days since I began with United in August 2020,  there have been only about five or six that I had opportunity to spend the holiday with family--and only three of those were at my home.  The rest of them were during my time in another city with one of my children or with Louis when he came on a  layover with me.  The bulk of those Thanksgiving days, I was either on a plane with hundreds of other people who were trying to get to their family celebrations. Or I was esconced in a hotel room with hours on my hands and a Thanksgiving  hamburger meal from Mc Donald's before they closed at noon so their employees could celebrate with THEIR families.  Oh, I always took a ton of stuff with me to occupy my time, but there was always something lacking--FAMILY!  It never really seemed like Thanksgiving.  No wonder I was looking forward to a Thanksgiving celebration without any spectre of United's crew desk hanging over me.

Then coronavirus reared its ugly head, and all of our lives changed drastically.  Oh, not all at once.  But along the way the pandemic changed the face of our entire existence all the way from our employment to how we interacted with each other, at home, at church, and out and about.   Then I ended up taking a voluntary separation from United which they counted as retirement.  

Still, I was adamant that we were going to meet for Thanksgiving and my birthday.  The plans were all in place, reservations at hotels made, and tickets for air travel already purchased.  It looked like a "go".

However, a couple of weeks ago, there were more setbacks.  Plus more people in the family had contracted COVID--though everyone recovered without incident.  After some intense family texting, I finally made the final decision and said that "it" was just another day.  We could celebrate next year when all this crap was behind us.

Cancellations, refunds, disappointment.  

Then Louis and I started to scale down our Thanksgiving dinner to just a turkey breast, and some of the trimmings--but in much smaller proportions.  We even got just two pieces of pie instead of making a whole one. 

One unexpected result with only two diners, though, was a beautifully set table.  For years every time we have been together as a family, we have resorted to paper plates--albeit fancy ones--instead of generating a lot of dishes and a clean-up time that took hours.  This year I actually rooted around in the cupboard and the china cabinet in the front room to find some nice pieces that had service only for two.  I even dug out the silverplate and polished up two knives, two spoons, and four forks-- two each for salad and dinner.  And a centerpiece....  How fancy is that...!

At 3 pm we sat down to eat.  But there was something missing--FAMILY--in person.  The Zoom call was fun while we were all eating dinner at the same time, but not in the same place.

Next time, I opting for a Thanksgiving Day that gives us opportunity to be together in person as a FAMILY and actually looks, and FEELS, like a traditional celebration!

Is that too much to ask?!

A HIDDEN GEM

 

BACK STORY--

You know that little cubby you keep close to your bed which you pile up with those  bits and pieces of reading material you are going to get to SOMETIME when you have a minute or two to sit down and read?  Well, the other day I was looking at that stack and decided it was time to sift through it and start organizing those magazine articles and downloads and scraps of paper into a more accessible stack.  

As I was leafing through everything and categorizing each piece into a better system, I came across this little essay.  (I have no idea why it was tucked into one of those magazines I was saving.)  It was a submission I sent to the Ensign magazine in October 2010 in response to one of those invitations posted at the end of some of the articles appearing in the magazine calling for related experiences.   This one was obviously a request for personal encounters with the Book of Mormon.  

When I had initially read that now forgotten article which sparked my submission, I immediately thought of the following ongoing influence the Book of Mormon had been for me at a very critical time in my life.  It wasn't difficult to put my words on paper, and I sent it off right away.  I figured nothing would come of it except the satisfaction I had because I actually acted on that invitation.

A few months later I received a phone call during the time I was out walking while on a layover in Houston.  It was some woman on the staff of the Ensign magazine telling me that they had accepted my experience with the Book of Mormon for publication.  And, that I needed to resend a copy of it in a certain format, releasing my essay to them.  I did that in a New York minute!  Consequently, I began to look forward each month for the Ensign to arrive in my mailbox.  When it did, I would tear through each page of the issue looking for my "article".  

Months passed and my article had never appeared. By that time, we were no longer studying the Book of Mormon for Gospel Doctrine every Sunday as a Church.  Then years passed.  That rotation of four books of scripture to study came and went nearly twice.  

I finally gave up that my article would ever be published, as the magazine's format is now VERY different with its emphasis on young adults and the change to a more contemporary layout.  But...I think this essay is still a very good experience to share, even now, because there might be someone out there who reads this blog and might see it as a testimony which could strengthen their own.

So, here it is the way I submitted it to the Ensign over ten years ago:

One day several years ago when I was Visiting Teaching, one of the sisters I visited shared that she reread the Book of Mormon every year and testified to the great blessings that undertaking brought to her each time.  Prior to that visit I had read the Book of Mormon cover to cover only once, though I always studied it when I was preparing for teaching assignments.  After my visiting teaching visit I decided to use that sister’s example, and I began again, “I Nephi, having been born of goodly parents....” and read right to the end.  She was right!  I was blessed in many ways I recognized and in other ways I could not even put my finger on.  But my life seemed to go more smoothly.  Since that sister’s example to me, I have reread the Book of Mormon over and over. 

At one period of time when my life was overwhelmed with my husband’s leaving the family, the seemingly impossible tasks of new employment that was more than stressful, and my son’s chronic health condition, I felt like I was drowning.  However, because I had become familiar with the teachings in the Book of Mormon, I knew treasures of truth appeared when I “likened” the scriptures to my own circumstance.

In chapter 24 of Mosiah in the Book of Mormon, Alma and his people were living under great burdens placed on them by the Lamanites.  They prayed for help and received an answer that the Lord was mindful of their situation and would deliver them—but that until they were delivered, their burdens would be eased so the people could withstand them.  The Lord told them he would deliver them from bondage so they could stand as witnesses that he took care of his people in their afflictions.

I had studied that chapter many times before in my life, and I had taught it many times to other people in gospel classes.  I believed the truth of those verses.  So I read that chapter every day for nearly a year just to sustain and maintain myself—to remind myself the Lord cared about me, too, and would make things easier.    Though I still had to experience those trials, he did make the burdens lighter.  In time, through a series of circumstances, those burdens were lifted, and I was delivered from the “bondage” I was experiencing. 

Those verses in the Book of Mormon carried me through a time of great personal adversity with peace and a comforting knowledge that the Lord is mindful of all his children.

Georgia H. Nichols

Carlson Farm Ward

Johnstown, Colorado

Who knows what hidden gems can be found in unexpected places if you're willing to go through some of the odds and ends that have become just a cluttered part of the "landscape".