In Sickness And In Health

I’m pretty sure that when I married my wife, who then just used to be what I called my FEYONCE (shoutout to my girl, BEYONCE), I vowed to love her regardless of our life situation, our financial situation, and I vowed to love her until I’m 102 (which is how old she says I have to live to be because she’s going to live to be 100 and I am not allowed to die before her - wish me luck). I spoke the words “in sickness and in health” to her, in front of all of our dearest family and friends within the same few minutes she spoke the exact same words back to me.

Then, five months later COVID hit the world, and fortunately for us, after two years of nearly being isolated from everyone, we were the healthiest we had ever been. Loving each other through sicknesses that hadn’t yet existed, was proving to be a breeze.

Before COVID, I was the girl who was sick at least once a month - if not twice. My immune system was shot, I spent ALL my time around snotty children who stuck everything in their noses and their mouths (#nannylife, am I right?) and I quite literally was sicker than I could ever imagine - nearly all of the time.

But then we were told to isolate. To quarantine. To stay away from anyone. To wear masks. TO WASH OUR FRIGGEN GROCERIES IN HOT SOAPY WATER (let’s just take a minute to appreciate that people were doing that - my wife and I being two of those people). I was convinced that IF I got COVID, I would definitely not be taking it like a champ, therefore meaning that I simply could not ever get it.

We isolated. We took vitamins. We hiked a LOT. I worked out. We didn’t really go anywhere. We didn’t see anyone.

And we were so healthy.

Then when the world opened up and we were allowed to finally travel again (I say finally because if you don’t know, my wife and I were trying to get to Australia for over two years and couldn’t) we decided that it was time, and we were moving overseas.

Along with the hundred other questions we asked ourselves, we wondered what traveling overseas would be like now that the world was swarmed with COVID? Well, we were vaccinated and tested and masked and sanitised and masked again and isolated and quarantine and isolated and masked and washed and sanitized and guess what? We moved across the world and NOTHING HAPPENED. Not a darn thing.

We met up with family, and nothing happened.

We met new people, and nothing happened.

We stopped washing our groceries like they were going to be the thing that killed us, and nothing happened.

We actually stopped washing our hands so much, and nothing happened.

We, like we were advised we could, stopped wearing masks, and still nothing happened.

But then it did.

About a month ago I was attacked by what I thought was COVID and I was unable to really do a lot. My wife took care of me, took on the full responsibility for our new dog, and made sure I felt loved and safe and happy and when I refused to call the doctor on my own, she called for me. Then, when there were no appointments available, she went to the store and bought me all the medication possible and doctored me up a bit.

I tested negative on a handful of RAT tests and on PCR tests and in the end, I had what they’re (who is they, anyway) calling the SUPERFLU.

I did not feel super.

My wife, in all that time, did not even get a sniffle. It surprises me to this day becuse I was the definition of a hot mess. I coughed for about twenty days straight and even though they were likely directed right at her face during the night, she surpassed the odds and came out on top.

Not long after sleeping through the night for the first time in weeks, it was my birthday and I was able to celebrate happily.

Not long after my birthday, it was time to celebrate my wife’s birthday.

However, we woke up the next day expecting a tiny (real tiny, for that matter) hangover, and all that was going on was SNOT. My wife was ill. And, I’m talking real ill. She was (and still is) THE SNEEZY & SNOTTY SHOW. Watching her go from hero to zero overnight broke my heart, and I wished nothing more than for it to be easy for her. I had it so bad (regardless of my negative COVID tests) so the last thing I wanted for her was for her to experience anything close to the same.

My wife was a gem, and when I was sick she was determined that she wouldn’t get it and she let me sleep in our bed next to her on the nights that I could without coughing up a lung. However, I’m not as nice. I’m the practical wife. Within moments of finding out she felt horrendous, I set her up with her own bed on the couch (sheets and all) and demanded that she stay there until she got better. At night, I lay in our bed all alone, taking up as much room as I want, while she is curled up on the couch with a mound of snotty toilet tissue under her pillow.

In sickness and in health.

Sure I didn’t let her sleep in the bed, but everything else I have been doing since her first sniffle has been with love - I promise you.

One of the best things I could have done (and I know it to be true) was make her some homemade soup. C’mon. Who doens’t love soup?

When I was sick, I had some friends drop off a few bowls of their very simple, very delicious soup that they say they eat every time they feel a sniffle coming on (or, when the sniffle has arrived, obviously). My sickness arrived in full force, and the day that I devoured the soup they dropped off, was the best day of my sickness.

This leaves me to believe that from this moment on - the soup I’m about to share with you - will be known as THE SOUP YOU EAT WHEN YOU’RE SICK in our family.

Want to know the soup recipe? I don’t blame you.

Here it is:

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THE SOUP YOU EAT WHEN YOU’RE SICK

• 1 big onion, chopped

• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

• 5 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 big carrot, finely chopped

• 5 mushroom caps, finely chopped (I used cremini)

• 1/4 cup coriander, finely chopped

• 1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed

• 1/8 teaspoon turmeric powder

• 6 cups water or vegetable broth (I used homemade chicken broth)

• salt, pepper and crushed red chili flakes to taste
  
  

OPTIONAL INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup kale, finely chopped

• 3 cloves garlic, minced

SUBSTITUTIONS:

• quinoa – lentils

• kale – spinach, swiss chard

1. In a medium-sized pan heat oil and sautee the onions, turmeric powder, red chili flakes, and garlic. Add a little salt, so that the onions will cook faster.

2. Now add the carrots, mushrooms, and coriander and fry for a couple of minutes.

3. Stir in the rinsed quinoa and vegetable broth/water. Add some more salt and pepper and cook for about 15-20 minutes until the quinoa is cooked. If you feel that the quinoa has absorbed a lot of water making a stew-like consistency add some more broth/water. Switch off the stove.

4. Stir in the chopped kale and minced garlic if using. The heat will wilt the greens.

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You know the response you get (well, I hope you know) when you call your Grandma and she asks how you are, you tell her that you’re sick? I know my Grandma’s response like the back of my hand. Any time she finds out I’m even remotely not 100% she tells me to drink a lot of water, have a hot bath, rub Mentholatum on the bottom of my feet and get some sleep.

In most recent times, we have discovered it’s beneficial to keep an eye on your health in general. Buying wholesale rat tests and having them readily available to check for anything more than just a common cold is useful so that when you feel any symptoms you don’t have to worry about heading to the store. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that staying in and resting is going to do everyone, including yourself, a big favour!

I hope nothing more than when I’m a mum, and a Grandma, that my advice is the same as my Grandmas’.

Except, I’m going to do my darndest to instill in everyone I love that IF they’re feeling sick, or are already sick, need to eat this soup (on top of all those other grandmotherly tips).

If they don’t have the energy to make it, then they need to get someone to make it for them.

My wife is that person for me, and I am that person for my wife. However, before that, our friends were those people for us. I will, forever, be the friend that offers to make soup for my friends and I really hope that if you’re ever in the same boat, you have friends that you can call upon to ask to make you soup, too.

Because doesn’t everyone love soup?

Doesn’t everyone need people to do things for them every once in a while?

In sickness, and in health, I will be here for my wife. Snot and all, I will forever do what I need to do to see her at her best.

I say this all with a knowing that we’re lucky. We have each other, and even now, we have yet to have to endure COVID 19. So many of you reading this have not been as lucky, and I want to always hold space for you too because I can’t imagine what you went through.

I suggest saving this recipe so you have it when you need it. Please know that it is not my recipe, and I take ZERO credit for it - but I do want a bit of credit for telling you about it, and if you choose to call it THE SOUP YOU EAT WHEN YOU’RE SICK, I’ll likely feel extremely special and will thank you endlessly. CLICK HERE to see the source of this recipe, and see it in its original form.

My hope is that you don’t NEED it for a while, but if you want to try it, let me know what you think in the comments below.

Stay healthy everyone