Dear editor,
Chloroquine, a promising Clovid-19 treatment, was around at least 72 years, not just 50! It saved my life in 1948. I was admitted to the hospital with a 106 degree fever and the three-month hospitalization, in isolation, interrupted my college career.
I had spent the summer in Turkey where Dad was stationed. Mom believed in dreams. Having one, she insisted Dad send her home because “One of the children was deathly ill,” either my brother, a medical student, or I. She found me already hospitalized for two days, delirious!
Because specimens returned “negative” from Walter Reed Hospital, Mom asked the puzzled physicians, “Could my daughter possibly have ‘ah me vah-thez (Greek for amoeba)? She didn’t know how to say it in English. They quickly obtained chloroquine from Boston Clinic. My fever dramatically disappeared. Final diagnosis: amoebiasis of the liver.
Mom promised the Virgin Mary, if she healed me, she would take me to the Island of Tinos, Greece, to the monastery at the top of the hill. There I would make my pilgrimage in gratitude for answered prayer. God honored the only faith my mom knew. Long story short, Mom kept that promise. After we climbed a long, cobblestone road, in the dead of winter, the priest denied my entry to the church because I was wearing slacks, ski suit. When Mom got through with him, he let me in, an indelible memory!
What a sight, like a mini Vatican! Under lock and key a huge, glass-enclosed icon of the Virgin Mary with Christ Child protected innumerable jewels; jewels probably pledged by loved ones or others healed as well. Not “born again,” then, this Christian would have known it was Jehovah Rapha, Healer, Christ “By whose stripes,” I was healed (I Peter 2:24) the Word of God! That’s why as long as God gives me breath, I’ll praise the name of Jesus Christ, the name above all others.
Back to the pandemic, God could be answering our prayers for America to return to God. Sports, etc. too long have been gods before God! The Pensacola News Journal, on March 22, listed “100 things to do while in quarantine.” Not listed was “Read the Bible.” Stay-at-home mandates could drive many or all to do so. They would discover God’s unfailing, unconditional, everlasting love for them (John 3:16). They might even join the Family of God, receive eternal life, spend eternity with Him, His desire, praise God.
Employed at CDC (1960-1963) I pray for them et al. God bless, protect the faithful, dedicated health care workers.
God bless us all as only He can. Maranatha.
— Chrys Holley, Milton
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosas Press Gazette: My encounter with Chloroquine