Thanksgiving is one of the special holidays on the annual calendar.  In 2021, I have a special set of thoughts about being thankful.

At age 70, it’s been mostly luck that my health has been generally good most of my life.  However, the last year or so has created some close calls.

Just over one year ago, I announced my intention to end the LarryInFishers.com local news blog.  It has always been a labor of love for me, but the labor part was not getting any easier.

I posted a story last year of my intention to end the blog after about 9 years, at least in its news format.  I had planned to shift to more entertainment, focusing my writing and podcasts more on the creative community, reviewing and publicizing music, plays and film.

Then COVID hit.  There was a shutdown of most arts activities in-person.  The movie theaters were shut down.  There was nothing to cover in the arts.

So, I decided to report news a little longer, since the larger news outlets couldn’t cover Fishers, they had enough on their hands with a major pandemic.

It was late October last year when I tested positive for COVID.  I was sick, very sick, and was e-mailing my primary care physician regularly on my condition.  It wasn’t until many months later that my doctor told me she was very close to admitting me to the hospital.

You may recall that just over a year ago, there was no vaccine available and people entering the hospital for COVID treatment often did not come out alive.  Only then did I understand how serious my condition was in 2020.

COVID sucked all the energy out of my body.  I sat in a chair all day with nothing to do but think….and think I did, a lot.

I realized during that time how my news blog needed to continue.  Yes, the work load was hard and the temptation to retire for real was hard to resist.

It was during those long days fighting COVID that I realized I had to continue with the news blog.  Even with COVID bringing me down, I vowed to myself that if I survived this bout with the pandemic, I would return to the blog and my podcasts.  That’s what I did.

So, I survived a tough COVID bout, barely staying out of a hospital stay in November of 2020.

Fast forward to recent weeks.  I had a nasty bout with E. coli, a very rare type that posed a serious danger to my health.  It wasn’t until my second day in the hospital that I fully understood how much danger I was in, but God was looking out for me – I fully recovered.

Being thankful doesn’t express it strongly enough – at this point of my life, I am so very thankful just to be here, writing this piece.

What I also found was the importance of family and friends.  I have the greatest collection of family & friends any human being could have.  When I was in the middle of these health challenges, family and friends were there for me.  Thanks to all of you for your support and good wishes.

I can honestly say Thanksgiving 2021 is special because I feel well and my health is good.  Many medical professionals made that happen.  Everyone treating me deserves a special thanks on this Thanksgiving.

Finally, allow me to express my annual Thanksgiving appreciation to you, the readers of this blog and listeners to my podcasts.  I take no advertising and charge nothing for this blog.  It is my thanks to the Fishers community for providing a first-class K-12 education to my twin daughters, who are now married adults making their mom & I very proud.  Jane & I also appreciate Fishers, an outstanding community in which to live, so this blog is a way to give back to my local community.

When starting this blog in January of 2012, I thought I would be lucky to have a few hundred readers.  In 2021, my unique visitor count is already measured by the tens of thousands and the year is not over yet.  I must be doing something right to gain the trust and loyalty of so many readers.

So, thanks for reading the blog and listening to my podcasts.  As long a my health holds out, I am here to write about Fishers.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!