Merry Christmas Everyone!
Another year is almost behind us and I find myself home for the holidays this year, comfortably curled up at Mom's and Dad's watching the snow fall. And what a year it has been! There were some ups and some downs and of course our hearts and prayers go out to poor Tony who, as Sally says, is with the Lord now.
Jimmy and Mitch are doing "fan-tast-ic!" as they like to say. Even though Sally initially condemned their lifestyle together as a sin, she and Mitch were able to reconcile and we were all very happy to see that happen. It was hard on Mitch to be estranged from his sister.
Cindy and Chuck had another rough year but those two are back together again. There were rumors of marriage early in the year and for a while it looked like we would be playing host to a summer wedding. Unfortunately, poor Cindy got a case of cold feet and took an extended vacation to France to figure out what she wanted and to see a friend of hers, Matt, who was studying abroad there. Even though Matt is just a friend, Chuck was very upset and moved home for a while in order to deal with that.
This left Jimmy, Mitch and me in a bind as we now had two unfilled bedrooms in the house and our landlord, never a fan of having one room unfilled, was really on us to find new roommates.
Luckily for us, Sally had two friends from her church that were just back from their two-year mission in Africa. Neither of them had a place to stay so in March we welcomed Tony and Eric to the house.
Personally I was a little worried because I thought there was going to be a repeat of last year's "no drinking, no smoking" rule as both Tony and Eric are very dedicated to their faith but thankfully they were very understanding and turned out to be great roommates. They entertained us for hours with their stories of working in Africa.
In April, Eric decided to return to Africa and continue his work there. Chuck was tired of the commute from his parent's place to school and moved back in. I think it helped that Sally was around the house again. They quickly resumed their friendship and, for a moment, I thought I even saw some sparks but I guess whatever romance was between them was over. That didn't stop Sally, Tony and Chuck from becoming very close friends. Personally, I think Chuck missed the closeness he'd found in his basketball league last year and combined with Cindy being out of the country it was good for him to again find a close group of friends.
The three of them started a bible study group through the Sunday school. Every Sunday afternoon we had ten or fifteen kids over the house for a few hours. You probably know how I feel about kids but I actually found that I enjoyed having them around. It made the house feel more alive. And this wasn't your typical bible study group. Tony always made sure that the kids had an activity, whether it was baking cookies or arts and crafts time or just playing soccer on the front lawn.
In July, Cindy came back from France. She and Jimmy and Mitch got very involved in the gay community at school over the summer as Jimmy and Mitch had been elected co-presidents of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance. It was hard for Chuck at first, having her around all the time as she planned events for the upcoming year. And Sally certainly didn't approve of their lifestyles but everyone seemed stay out of each other's way and the peace was kept. Eventually Chuck and Cindy even started taking steps toward a small friendship.
By September it looked like we were going to have a fantastic year. The house was full, school was starting and it looked like I'd be able to graduate come the new year.
Then in November Tony went to visit Eric in Africa. He came back with what we all thought was a head cold mixed with jet lag and he spent a few days sleeping. We all thought he should take it easy over the weekend but he didn't want to disappoint the kids. He had brought each of them something from Africa and was really excited to give them their gifts.
Unfortunately what he thought was a cold turned out to be the Ebola virus. I don't want to ruin your holiday cheer so I won't describe the scene the kids found when they went to get Tony out of bed that Sunday afternoon. Suffice to say that finding Tony's discolored body twisted in pain in that small dark room and between the blood, diarrhea and vomit, it was quite traumatic for the kids. While I'm sure that's something that they would have liked to put behind them immediately, once the CDC determined what Tony had died from, all of us had to spend several weeks in quarantine. I think quarantine was hardest on Sally as she ended up sharing a room with Mitch since they are family. Last year Mitch and Jimmy were more discrete about their relationship but locked in quarantine with nothing much to do, those two spend a lot of time showing their affection for each other.
If there's a positive, Bethesda Naval hospital is really quite nice and quarantine did give me a chance to catch up on my reading, even though I had to take an incomplete for the quarter which pushed my graduation back.
And of course the house was condemned and had to be destroyed along with all of our clothes and furniture and pretty much everything else. Not to mention all those presents that Tony had brought back from Africa. Chuck though took it particularly hard. Not only did he lose everything he owned, he lost a really close friend. Cindy has been great though, she stayed with him in the Naval Hospital to help him get over the loss of Tony and those two rekindled their relationship during that time.
The landlord is using the insurance money to rebuild the house and it looks like we'll be back in it come February. So if you're looking for me, I'll be at my parents place until then. Of course, with what happened to poor Tony, we've still got an empty bedroom, so if you know of anyone looking, come February we've got an opening.
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and all the best to you in 2008.
1101 Spruce.
Posted by Ben Corman at 12:49 PM