As we look back at 2022, we hear about whom should be the “blank” of the year.
Often times we go with some person who made a difference in the world, either in academics or in some other venture. Platitudes are given for what ever work they have done and it is no doubt richly deserved.
But there is a group that is rarely if ever given credit for, and that is the women and men who have chosen to have and raise children in this time of incredible challenges, from diseases to shortages that seem to have been an new issue with every day.
In 1960 before vaccines, children would get chicken pox, mumps and measles. In my family it came in waves.
Imagine being stuck in a house with three kids under the age of five who had succession of the illness. Fevers, vomiting and chills were part of that summer.
We lived in an un-airconditioned house and due to the mumps we had to have the shades closed. It is the year that my brothers and I determined that my mother lost her mind. It was a most challenging year for her and my father; 60 years later, we still remember that summer.
But consider 2022. Daily, new parents are confronted with a variety of diseases from COVID-19 to RSV. Trips to the doctor are more frequent with an added sense of urgency.
For new parents every day brings a new worry that their child will get some sort of life threatening illness that medicine has no cure for.
The worst thing for any parent is to watch their child, get sick. Looking into their eyes, for infants and toddlers who cannot speak breaks one heart.
Combine that with the fact that most hospitals have gone on lock down for visitors and parents are stressed to the max.
Daily, my son and his wife are confronted with some new illness that has confronted them. They are fortunate that both sets of grandparents are moments away and ready to assist them. But not everyone has the same safety net.
Even the basics, such as formula, are in short supply, in part due to the federal government absolutely punting on the manufacture of formula.
Why in the world is the most powerful country in the world having such a third world problem? The current administration has let down the American people on this issue.
While this problem started in 2022, it is still a problem in 2023. Why should moms and dads be worried where their next meal of formula be coming from?
This is the United States of America. We lead the world, not be dependent on aid from other countries.
Even the issue of sick leave needs to be rectified. I remember when my then youngest son was in the hospital for dehydration. My wife stayed with our son 24/7 while I took care of our oldest.
The response from the City of Champaign? That I had violated the contract by using more sick-time — six days — than I had accumulated for that time period.
Regardless that at the time, I had nearly 1,000 hours of accumulated leave, I still violated the contract and received discipline for that infraction.
Rather that being concerned over the welfare of my child, I was simply a peg in a hole that was not filled. I retired some 20 years later. That one event still bothered me when I retired.
So as we honor so and so for doing good works for the year, let us not forget the real unsung heroes. The parents who, in the most challenging of times, decide that they want to bring a human into this world.
Perhaps that child will someday find a cure for all these illnesses.
Mark C. Medlyn of Brown County is an occasional community columnist. A graduate of Bloomington High School South and Indiana University, he has worked as a police officer and an adjunct college instructor, authored a textbook on the Illinois vehicle code, and became a substitute teacher in Illinois upon his retirement from full-time law enforcement in 2007. He and his wife, a retired university instructor, have been Brown County property owners since 2015.
