It has been 10 weeks since I started a work from home regime, a by-product of the virus that is wreaking havoc across the globe now. As I write, Brazil has caught up with America to be an epicenter of this dreadful pandemic.

One of the good things to have come out of the current tragedy, is that somehow, we have connected more with a few people. I have connected more with a neighbour, who only moved in because the pandemic put paid to the previous neighbour’s plan to sell the house and this new neighbour became their tenant. We have also connected with a young Malaysian family a few houses down the street. We have exchanged foods in recent weeks and it has been kind of fun. Most of all. we have connected more with family back in Malaysia.

Last Saturday, we took another Zoom meeting with the family. It was to pray for Sim. It was really good to have come together to pray for her, but it also pained me. To take in how much she has deteriorated since we met her in person end of last year, was painfully difficult. She is still up and about and very engaging in media like WhatsApp and Facebook but she now has difficulty breathing and sleeping has become a challenge. Doctors have advised another course of chemotherapy, which would start next week. The Lord knows how much I hope it would work this time.

I said to Tress last night, that I am so very grateful we got to spend some time with her and Daniel in November last year. We were only there for a few days but every moment we spent together meant our engagement with their lives was more than it would have been otherwise. This pandemic has meant we cannot travel as easily as we did then, and I really would have jumped on a plane first chance I get, to see her had we not been so restricted. Sarcoma sounds terrible but apparently, the prognosis may allow us to yet go and see her again. Who knows, our Lord who heals, may give the doctors really good knowledge when administering the chemo, and we may yet get to see her many more times.