I may be late to the party, but my covid story has finally unfolded. Many of you have already had your own experiences with covid – here is mine.

Firstly, you should know that I am a huge vaccine advocate. In the past three years I have been vaccinated for covid as many times as possible (either five or six, I have lost track), plus flu shots, shingles, you name it. If there were a vaccine for mosquito bites, I would be first in line.

My shots didn’t prevent covid, but I would have been much sicker without them.

My illness started with a cold, which morphed into a bacterial sinus infection in June. After two weeks, I started antibiotics.

I immediately felt better, so I agreed to accompany my husband, who consults for a Canadian mining company, to the firm’s annual general meeting and dinner reception in Vancouver.

We weren’t too worried, since it is company policy that employees be vaccinated. After the meeting we dined at a beautiful buffet, drank champagne, and mingled like mad with my husband’s colleagues.

Alas, our confidence was misplaced. One of the guests had covid, and the reception turned into one of those ghastly super spreader events.

Two days later, I took to my bed, still with a sinus infection and still taking penicillin. For one week, I felt sick all over and weak as a kitten. It took a full month before I was up and around.

My husband also tested positive, but had no symptoms at all! If my immune system had not been attacked on two fronts, I believe I would have escaped just as lightly.

Although I have now recovered from the double whammy, I haven’t felt like doing much, so this newsletter will be short and sweet.

We stayed at our cottage on Vancouver Island while I was sick, and my husband kept me well supplied with flowers from our gorgeous rose bush, shown in the top photo.

To see photos of our lovely cottage: Palm Tree Cottage.

When I felt able to rise from my sick bed, I did jigsaw puzzles. (It’s pretty pathetic when the highlight of your day is getting a “join.” You puzzlers out there will know what I mean.)

I enjoyed this puzzle, thinking about all those thousands of young Commonwealth airmen zooming around in Canadian skies in these yellow training aircraft.

I also did a LOT of reading. I set myself a goal to read fifty books in 2023 and thanks to covid, I have met that goal already!

Among my favourites – I finished ALL SIXTEEN of the Whiteoaks of Jalna books. This series tells the story of the fictional Whiteoak family who arrived in Canada from England in 1854 and built a brick house called Jalna. The series lasts right up to 1954 when the final book in the series takes place, Centenary at Jalna. The author Mazo de la Roche sold millions of copies and it was made into a television miniseries.

Yes, it is dated in some ways (you can tell by the cover) – but has such a lively cast of unpredictable characters that I was bereft when I finished the last one and said goodbye forever to the Whiteoaks.

I also read several award-winning works of literary fiction. By far the best was Greenwood, by Michael Christie. It’s another gripping saga about a British Columbia logging family that also spans one hundred years, from 1934 until 2034.

My book club read this at my suggestion and our members rated it an average nine out of ten. Highly recommended!

Finally, I want to share a post I wrote three years ago, when I documented the process taken by my daughter Melinda and her now-husband Andrew to renovate our old 1989 Starcraft camper.

I guess a lot of people out there have the same idea, because it is one of my most popular posts ever. So far 12,000 people have read this post on my website!

Read about the process here: Vintage Camper Renovation.

Since then, the old Starcraft has visited campgrounds around Western Canada and is being enjoyed once again by the next generation!

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Friends, my advice is to avoid covid if you possibly can. As for me, I plan to enjoy our beautiful long summer days and be thankful for my return to good health.

Fondly, Elinor