The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.

"Who Am I Thanksgiving 2010?"

By Elaine Slater Reese

(Elaine Slater Reese is a freelance writer in Spring Green, Wisconsin, who grew up in Hancock County - near Bowen, Illinois)

I AM the father of six who has been unemployed for eighteen months.

I AM the homeowner who has learned the definition of the word foreclosure.

I AM the three year old whose mother did not come home last night.

I AM dying of aids. The doctors say they can do no more.

I AM 92 years old - locked in this useless body.

I think - I feel - but no one knows.

I AM the one who chose to drink and drive and killed my two best friends.

I AM the college student with no funds for next semester.

I AM the drug addict. I must steal again today.

I AM the husband who just finished building little by little our dream home. The doctors told me yesterday I have Stage 4 cancer.

I AM the mother of the nineteen year old soldier killed this week in Afghanistan.

I AM a volunteer in the Haitian camps. The cholera is near us.

I AM the fifteen year old - pregnant with no longer a family or home.

I AM the eleven year old who finally managed to find three stale slices of bread to feed my five younger siblings today.

I AM the one who is complaining - so many coming for Thanksgiving - too big a house to clean - too many groceries to purchase - not enough time to get everything done.

WHO AM I Nov. 25, 2010?

Psalm 116:8-9

"For you, O Lord, have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before the Lord in the land of the living.