Like you, probably, I’ve heard horror stories about the reaction some people had to their second  Covid shot. I got my first one while a resident at Park View Health Care Facility in Bolivar and had only minor soreness in my right arm, but I dreaded the second one. Cedar County Memorial Hospital Memorial Hospital called and offered to make a house call. Kimball scheduled it for last Thursday so we would have time to recover before deadline day.

Mid-afternoon Jennifer Mays showed up at the front counter. She gave Kimball her dose first then me. Just the usual needle stick. I took it in my right arm like I did the first one because I’m left-handed.

Then Jennifer was going to hang around for 10 minutes or so to see if we had a reaction. Turned out to be more like 20 minutes. She told us that she is a Picnic bride. She lived in Joplin and ran into a friend at the El Dorado Picnic. The friend offered to set her up on a blind date (Jennifer’s first and only) with Chad Mays. They have now been married for 16 years,

That night Kimball had body aches.  The next day she felt fine. Kimball had zero reaction to the first shot as I did. I never knew I had the second shot either. (I pronounce that E – ther -Kimball says that when  two vowels go walkin’,  the first one does the talkin’.)  I never say I – ther. Kimball thinks maybe that it is German.

• I’m not a doctor so I’m not qualified to dispense medical advice. I can tell you this: Knowing what I know, I’d take both Covid shots again. When I wear a mask in public, it’s just to obey the rules. Like everybody else, I hate wearing a mask.

• I received a nice card and note from Tim Francka, the director of all of Citizen Memorial Hospital’s nursing homes. He congratulated me on my “outstanding recovery” and said his staff enjoyed my Rock Wall about them. He said his grandmother, Peggy Jones, still asks about me.  She sat at our table at meals and we always had lively conversations. The only way we knew her age was when she told us – 98 or she’s going to be 98 on Dec. 1. Her mind is like a steel trap. She is a walking history book. I missed her when she moved out of rehab to another part of the facility. I’d guess her to be in her 70’s.

When she told me. She was from Pleasant Hope, I asked if she knew DeWayne Burdette. our former pastor at Concord. Yes, she knew him. His farm borders her farm. Bro. DeWayne preached her husband’s funeral. She has known him all of his life.

• After Peggy left, another long-time area resident came to our table for a while. I asked if she knew Bro. DeWayne. Yes, she replied, he is our pastor. Her name is Faye Durnell and at 92, she is the oldest living member of Halfway Missionary Baptist church. She could walk fine and really didn’t need therapy, so they soon moved her to another part of the health care facility. Faye told us that Bro. DeWayne’s birthday is Dec. 17, which is why we have a church dinner in December, and he is 82. Doesn’t seem possible.

• I talked to Bro. DeWayne on the phone Monday. His and Janice’s son, Michael, was helping him with a three-year-old Cub Cadet mower that wasn’t running right. Michael discovered that a mouse had munched on the ignition wiring. Our mice up here don’ do that. Do they? That’s a Pleasant Hope thing.KL