Carla

I had been thinking for a couple of days about a subject for a new post on here, a funny one (to me, at least), but I'm putting that one on temporary hold in order to do this one. This is what's on my mind this rainy Monday morning, and sometimes there are things that need to be considered right away instead of delaying them.

When I first moved to our little town of Greenview, two of the first people I became acquainted with were my friends Sue Elliot and Carla Clemens, who were longtime friends themselves. I honestly don't recall which order I met them in, but because it was so close in time, I invariably think of them together. Everyone here, without exception, has been more than generous in making my wife and me feel welcome in this great little town, but these two have led the pack in that effort.

Carla in particular has just been a little one-woman cheering section for me personally. She writes the most charming little blog about Greenview, and when I became a fan of it (and later decided to start THIS blog), she was first in line to encourage me. My goal was to try to capture some of the small-town feel she had in her blog, and so far, I haven't particularly done a very good job of that. But I'm working on it.

Back in December, Carla's blog posts (which had been pretty much daily) stopped suddenly. The same became true for her Facebook posts. That was immediately noticeable because she had made herself part of the landscape here, and anytime you can do that, you're conspicuous by your absence. The citizens of the "landscape" worry about you.

Today, 5 months later, she broke her silence with a Facebook post. Let me be clear that I want to go to whatever length necessary to respect her privacy, but the post told of how she was dealing with some major health problems of her own while also helping care for two gravely-ill sisters, one of whom she lost this past Saturday. She explained that all this together has led her to deal with these matters privately, and that maintaining that minimal contact with the outside world is just how she feels she needs to handle this at the moment.

I have nothing but respect for that, and nothing but concern for her, and I'll honor whatever she chooses to do. But I also can't let this window of opportunity pass without letting her know, in this forum that she inspired me to step into, that she is a ray of sunshine in the lives of everyone she touches, and that she will be in our prayers daily.

And I can't wait until she gets back to her blog, because SOMEBODY needs to show me how to do this!

We love you, Carla, and we're praying for you to get well soon!