Wishing the Year Away and the Gift of the Advent Season
By Ida Williams Let’s face it: we all wish time away. Our commute to work, our mundane tasks, meetings, waiting for the dishwasher repairman—which is what I am doing as I write this. We wish away times we have to wait. I have been wishing the year away. On November 4, my father passed away. His illness and suffering had been long. He had spent his last six and a half years living in a nursing home. His being a double amputee made it impossible for any of us in my family to provide the care he required. My mother went to the nursing home every day to be with him. During COVID she visited him through his window. I visited him weekly, spending less and less time during each visit as his health continued to decline and he no longer knew who I was. When he passed, there was a sense of relief. The wait was over, and his healing could begin. The only scars in Heaven, they won't belong to me and you ...