After the hospital comes the chicken noodle soup

Thanks to a smorgasbord of health issues, our household has, once again, been a guest of a local emergency room, where, it turns out, we find ourselves on a first-name basis with the doctors and nurses and technicians.

That's good.

And it's not so good.

On the plus side, it's always a comfort when medical professionals you trust put their training to good use. Let's face it, Cape Girardeau's two big hospitals have some of the best and brightest staffers. We are so lucky.

On the other hand, no one likes to make a visit to the ER. In our case, my wife stayed in the hospital four more days for surgery and high-powered treatment. Even though she didn't want to be in the hospital, she was so lucky.

It is fortunate that we are retired and don't have to work illnesses and hospital stays around a professional schedule. I am, thank goodness, available to help out at home, even if my efforts sometimes produce less-than-desirable results. For the most part, I run a pretty tight operation, if I do say so myself. My wife says I do a pretty good job. That's high praise, considering my skills in nursing, cooking, doing laundry and all the other things involved in care-giving when someone isn't quite up to par.

It is at times like this that we are so thankful for good friends.

And for good friends who are also good cooks.

I don't mean better-than-opening-a-can cooks. I'm talking about cooks who demonstrate how properly prepared dishes can look and taste so much better than something from a package or something that comes with microwave directions -- only.

I don't mind cooking, but it is so nice to have something ready to put on the table at mealtime that didn't involve planning, shopping or preparation.

Thank you, dear cooking friends. I know you have some idea of how wonderful your expressions of kindness and friendship have been.

On top of the food, several of our guest chefs also provided fresh flowers from their own gardens. If you're going to convalesce, springtime is a good time to do it, especially if tulips are blooming.

One of the special cooking teams -- she cooked, he delivered -- added not only fresh-picked flowers but also a bottle of wine. How can it get any better than that?

You would think anyone recovering at home from a bit of surgery would tire of chicken noodle soup, the concoction that is known to cure just about everything.

In our case, we had several examples of what we like to call the Best Chicken Soup in the World -- because it was. In some cases we made more than one meal from delivered-to-the-front-door containers of chicken, broth, noodles and vegetables.

Chicken noodle soup is -- I'm sure of it -- what God gave the hordes wandering in the wilderness after they complained about having to eat manna every morning, noon and night. "Tastes like shellac," they whined.

You can look for yourself, but I cannot find a single instance in the Bible where anyone complained about too much chicken noodle soup.

Things at our house are on an uptick right now, and we are so grateful for small improvements, just as we are abundantly grateful for all the expressions of concern and love that have been so evident these days.

Thank you.

Joe Sullivan is the retired editor of the Southeast Missourian.