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BERGHEIM • BOERNE • COMFORT • FAIR OAKS • KENDALIA • SISTERDALE • WARING • WELFARE
Thursday, October 29
Happy 99th Birthday! Turning 99 During a Pandemic
This week, I turned 99 years young. Thanks to the pandemic, it’s been a different birthday to say the least. As a resident of a senior care facility, I cannot leave and my family cannot come in to visit me. They can drop things off for me at the front and we can talk by phone or facetime. But I’m missing all the things I can’t do. I’m missing hugging a loved one. I’m missing holding my newest great-grandchild or attending my granddaughter’s wedding. As Thanksgiving approaches, it’s been over seven months since I’ve been able to dine with my family. I know I’m not alone.
People everywhere are making sacrifices and struggling to get by. I especially feel bad for the youth. The young people who missed out on going to their proms, who can’t go hang out with their friends, or find part-time jobs, who can’t attend football games or concerts, who can’t live in their college dorms because of the threat of COVID. Life as they know it has changed. It takes me back to my own youth. I was 20 years old when America entered World War II in 1941. It was a terrifying and trying time. Friends and family members left home to serve overseas. Some would never return. Those of us at home did our part to help win the war. Giving up nylons and staples for the war effort. We took jobs in the factories to build planes and equipment. We helped raise the spirits of our
fighting men and women at our neighborhood USOs. We invited homesick soldiers for home-cooked meals and sing-a-longs. Before WWII, as a child of the Great Depression, I had seen people lose everything— their jobs, their homes, their life savings. We learned how to do more with less, and it helped us to realize what was really important in life. We opened our homes to our friends and relatives who had lost theirs. We learned to conserve and make what we needed, from sewing our own clothes to bottling our own ketchup. We learned to love hand-me-downs before they were vintage. One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned in my first 99 years is that it’s always darkest before dawn, when a tiny ray of light begins to spread hope across the landscape. Together, we will find new ways to live safely and go
by Mary Alice Yelverton
about our business in the New Normal. We must have faith in God and in each other. And we must continue to look out for each other by finding new ways to connect through drive-by birthday celebrations, old fashioned cards you actually mail and phone calls you make to tell people how much they mean to you. I cannot thank our first responders and healthcare workers enough for all they are doing to make sure people are safely getting the care they need. When my husband and I and our children moved to Boerne 50 years ago, we found a community that valued family and service to others. Our law enforcement, community leaders, teachers, business owners and citizens continue to work together to make Boerne the place I’m still very proud to call home. Whether you’re 19 or 99 or somewhere in between, thank you for all you’re doing to stop
the spread of this devastating disease. Experts are finding that COVID-19 not only strikes down the elderly or those with underlying health conditions, but it’s causing heart damage and blood clots in people of all ages. If you smoke or vape, you’re at higher risk for complications if you get COVID-19 according to pulmonologists I’m confident we can beat this! When you put on your mask before going out or into a store, church or school, it shows how much you care about the people around you. Watching your distance, avoiding crowds and keeping that bottle of hand sanitizer handy will go a long way in stopping the spread of COVID-19. The sacrifices we all make today will pay off for all of us. And we’ll be able to be together again. And I’ll be able to hug my great-grandchildren. Bye for a while…share a smile (under your mask).
Join the drive-by birthday planned by the Kendall Country Sheriff’s office Sun., Nov. 1 at 2 p.m. Cibolo Creek Rehab & Wellness • 1440 River Rd
