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It was Christmas morning when that same filthy virus that has attacked so many of us over the last few weeks took hold.
Before my kids even came charging down the stairs to see what Saint Nick had brought them, I knew the day was doomed.
Every muscle was melting. Every head hair stung. And that hacking cough that never provided the right amount of phlegm trailed me like a reckless night on Rt. 99 in Malden.
I may as well had wearing a pink onesie and a pair of knitted boots.
Sorry, that’s just what happens when I get sick. I fold up like a child, whine constantly, and bathe in a river of negativity. My mind, literally, goes black, as if someone shut out the lights on my masculinity.
Cross-eyed and drenched to my thighs, I tried to be excited for my children, my wife, as they opened their gifts.
“Your turn, Daddy. Open something.”
“Nah, nah. I’m good.” I told them, as I curled up into the fetus position on the hassock with one eye poking out from under a heavy blanket. “I’ll be fine. I’m okay.”
Could I be more pathetic?
Of course I could, says all men in general. If there is one thing we recognize about our biological makeup is this: we as men are the wimpiest of all wimps when we get sick.
And by sick I mean a cold, or the flu, or the aches in general.
I don’t know what it is about you women. Not only do I adore you, but I admire your toughness when it comes to being sick.
I remind my wife of this often. I say to her, “Remember a few days after you gave birth to Leo and you were feeling all worn out and blue?”
“Yes,” she usually says. “You told me to go for a run and take a shower. ‘You’ll be fine.’”
“Exactly. And you did.” I say. “You were a machine!”
“It’s called post partum, dummy.”
“Still. You’re a machine!”
Then, within minutes of opening her last Christmas present, my young daughter, now looking more haggard and gray than her old man, was struck down by the virus as well. Boom, just like that.
So, while my wife and son ventured to the Bay State to enjoy a day of turducken, my kid and me ached our way through the holiday, pilled up on Advil, covered in perspiration, watching every bad Christmas movie TBS had to offer.
Crawling my way into the bathroom, I managed to lift my head long enough to catch a glimpse of my sagging face in the medicine chest.
“It’s over.” I whispered to the slab of ham hock staring back at me. “I just know it.”
I was in deep. Thick with a temperature hovering near 100 and with a definite respiratory infection, the worm in me began to turn. I forgot my past, denounce the future and resist all memories of spring.
It’s been a good run, I thought.
“Daddy,” I heard my daughter say weakly. “I’m just so thirsty.”
“I know, baby. I know.” I shouted from the bathtub. “But I’m just so cold.”
Returning to the living room, I expected to find my daughter racked out on the couch or hacking up into one of the hundred soggy tissues sprawled across the carpet.
Instead, she was in the kitchen, toasting a bagel, opening a jar of peanut butter, and pouring some orange juice.
I looked at her in awe. I’m 42, she’s 11, and for all I know, Wordsworth was right when he said, “Child is the father of man.” (Thanks, Mr. Harrison).
All 80 pounds of her loaded her bagel and juice into one arm, then reached down into the freezer and pulled something out.
“Here, have a popsicle, Daddy.” she said, jamming one into my gut as she passed me in the hall. “‘You’ll be fine.’”
One Passover I showed up at a good (very good) friend’s house with a small hyperactive boy and the flu. I collapsed on my friend’s fold out couch and my friend’s partner took care of my son. I’m married to that kind caretaker now and we trade off being metaphorically packed off into a Onesie for the duration. We’re both horrible when we’re sick and by some miracle, whoever’s less sick is able to pull it together and be grown.
That was a lot different from my last Christmas where I had a severe sinus infection, face half swollen and major pain. Christmas Eve, made it to my daughters house to help her and her husband decorate their tree (family tradition on Christmas Eve after the kids are asleep). Done by 11PM and went to midnight mass and then to the ER. Next morning, my wife and I were at daughters house for when the kids were up. Still swollen … I endured. I think it was really nice that your daughter stepped up and helped you. Kids are amazing.… Read more »