Sylvia's Journal

Today is Thanksgiving Day in the US. Most people will be very mindful of what they are thankful for, aside from eating turkey and a whole host of traditional dishes. Not having been brought up in the US, Thanksgiving was not a meaningful day for me. I had none of those warm and fuzzy childhood memories that may be reponsible for this being one of America’s top holidays. But, taking the name of the day quite literally, Thanksgiving Day this year will be quite meaningful for me as well.

Since the crash we have had a Thanksgiving Week (the week immediate post-crash in which our full recovery was predicted). Each time we tell our story to someone and he or she says “amazing (thank god) that you are still alive” we celebrate a few Thanksgiving Minutes. We had a Thanksgiving Afternoon that day in late August when Fatou had prepared us copious foods and we enjoyed the company of all those who had come to our aid. In mid-October we had a Thanksgiving Sunday with the people who rescued us in Gardner. And when I hear Axel’s breathing at night, it is a Thanksgiving Night. Thanksgiving in our new lives comes in various shapes and sizes. It is continuous and without end.

In fact, there is so much to be thankful for that this day could sink under its weight. We will make this a ‘Thanksgiving Light,’ partially because Tessa, Steve and Jim are not with us and also because of the food we will be eating: pea soup and pumpkin pie.

Yesterday was another crummy day for me. I went to bed very early again, while Sita, Axel and Jim were watching a movie. When I woke up this morning, after a sleepless night, with my head all stuffy and feeling crummier than ever, I realized that I am simply having a cold. What I had thought had been my new reaction to travel and jetlag was nothing more than a cold. I had seen many people around me the last couple of weeks with symptoms of the common cold. I naively thought that our bodies, dealing with heavier stuff, would have no room for stuffy noses and things like that. In the last four months we have pretty much only dealt with conditions that were on our discharge forms.

What I had forgotten is that colds were one of those ‘gifts’ that I would often bring back from a trip overseas. Catching a cold like this is part of my recovery and return to the normalcy of my pre-crash life; a normalcy that has its own challenges and bumps in the road.

Wherever you are in the world, and whether you are eating turkey or not, may this be a happy Thanksgiving Day.