Spell Bound

And so, as though a sorceress had cast her spell, every member of my husband's family, except his brother's baby, came down with the plague of the Hong Kong flu. We did not honeymoon, but spent our first official days of matrimony on a pullout sofa, nursing fevers, sore throats and nausea. My brother-in-law and his family were too ill to travel back home and my in-laws condominium took on the guise of an infirmary, with mattresses strewn on the floor and pill bottles lining the kitchen counter. We began a morning ritual of assessing our level of discomfort, hoping that that would be the day of our recovery. Slowly, by the end of a very long week, our symptoms began to disappear and although still too weak to do anything but shower, dress and rest again from the ordeal, our spirits were lifted.