When Fat Tuesday Became Sick Wednesdy

with guest title by Matt S. and inspiration by Nicole

I have written before about friendships and communities. We have friends and acquaintances. They have friends and acquaintances. We like to get together with our friends. They get together with their friends. We like sharing our lives and we are edified when we share our struggles and triumphs. Unfortunately, we sometimes share things that we don't intend to.

On Fat Tuesday, we traditionally get together with our "Matt's House" group because Matt makes fastnachts with his mom. This year, he was unable to host it due to his house being repaired from water damage, so another of the families offered to host it. That morning, the hosting wife became ill, so we offered to host it.

There is a nasty stomach/intestinal virus going around, but when we all arrived, no one felt ill and those who had been exposed, felt that they were out of danger. Can you guess where this is going?

Some one ended up bringing the bug to a gathering where food was the purpose. We all shared germs that fateful Tuesday night. Wednesday, one of the families who had been previously healthy, came down with the virus. It started going through our family on Thursday. And it hit my good friend and select members of her family too.

So the moral of this tale is, "Friends that hang together all get sick." Or perhaps, "Friends share - good things and bad things - and we love each other through good times and hard times and even when they get us sick."