Our Meigs County Home: Being Thankful

(Our Meigs County Home is a new weekly column written by the owner and journalist of the Meigs Independent Press, Carrie Gloeckner.) 

It had been my intention to begin this in the new year, but following a few events this week, it seems appropriate now.

Without going too deep into my personal health, I experienced something called a Complex Migraine. The symptoms are basically identical to having a stroke. Following an unplanned “vacation” at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, I found out it was massive migraine and not a stroke. As the symptoms subsided and I became me again, I was overwhelmed with the timing of it being Thanksgiving week. Every day I try to remember to be thankful for what I’ve been blessed with. I realized there is a lot I have taken for granted like holding a pen, writing, reading and being able to simply process information.

Until the tests came back it wasn’t a strike and the symptoms subsided, I was unsure what was going to happen. The past couple of weeks have been trying. I have questioned if the toll on my family and myself is worth it to have the Meigs Independent Press. I have prayed. I have questioned. Sometimes it is through the potholes in the road that God grants you direction, gives you answers. As I sat there in a hospital bed, I kept thinking how can I quit doing what I do? What would my life look like without the Meigs Independent Press?

That is when I realized this truly is home. I started working through things, working physically to get moving, to get better. I wanted back to my Meigs County home and to work again. I also was keenly aware that God may have other plans. I trusted in God, but I pushed forward.

In “His Girl Friday” (one of my all-time favorite movies), the character Hildegard “Hildy” Johnson was looking to get out of the news business. She was going to settle down and get married. Through a hilarious series of events, she realizes her calling, her place was in the newsroom. She was a “newspaperman.” I do not have the print version, but I am in the news business. It is in my blood.

So, in the coming year you will see new features and a different approach as I renew my commitment to cover local news. There will be weekly features including a year-long project that will be a unique look at life in Meigs County. I will be giving more information on the focus and direction the Meigs Independent Press will be moving into closer to the start of 2018. One of the new features will be a weekly column I will be writing which will focus on things going on around the county, concerns on the state level, and topics of general interest in relation to Meigs County. After looking at possibly losing my passion, I remember more than ever now there is no place like our Meigs County Home.