Waiting for the light

This has been a hard winter already, and winter isn't even officially here yet. Among our immediate acquaintance, there have been two deaths of mothers--both elderly, but still a difficult transition. A friend's spouse, barely 60, is receiving hospice care and unlikely to live into the new year; in the same family, the eldest child, born with a neurological disorder, is failing. Another friend is providing care for two invalid parents at home; her father is fading rapidly. A church friend is bedridden from another neurological disorder and drawing near the end, and just this morning, a neighbor died unexpectedly. His wife was out of town, and the fire department was called to break into the house when he failed to show up for work and she couldn't reach him by phone. I can only imagine the horror of her trip back to our valley.

Enough already. The sun has come out for what seems the first time in days. The solstice can't bring the light back too soon.