By Awara Fernandez

I am an ordinary woman.
Wife, mother, grandmother, daughter, sister, friend.
Nothing extraordinary about me–
Except–
Except this:
I was dying;
I got better.

A three-dimensional walking, talking miracle,
Doctors and nurses proclaimed.

And
I stumble under the weight of extraordinary:
Lungs scarred, gasping to find oxygen;
Heart shuddering, struggling to find traction
In a world without my younger brother, only sibling.

I am an ordinary woman;
Nothing extraordinary about me.
Wife, mother, grandmother, daughter, sister, friend.
And
And this

Mother-in-law–
Like another mother-in-law–
A three-dimensional walking, talking miracle

Who, after rising from her sick-bed,
Didn’t wear herself out trying to feed hungry multitudes.
She simply served Peter and his friends
Bearing the weight of her extraordinarily ordinary life

One meal, one breath at a time.

In August of 2021, Awara was hospitalized for 3 weeks with Covid pneumonia, spending time in both Critical Care and the ICU, not expected to survive.  Her younger brother, David, her only sibling, was hospitalized with Covid at the same time in a different state.  Three days after Awara was released to continue her recovery at home, David was released to go Home.  She misses him every day. 

About the Author

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