T-L Photo/JD LONG The Rev. William Webster sits at his workplace at Grace Presbyterian Church in Martins Ferry, where he continues to keep an upbeat attitude after a year-long battle with COVID.

MARTINS FERRY — William O. Webster, the minister at Grace Presbyterian Church who has his hands in many things helping the community and people in need, now needs some help himself.

In fact he’s needed some relief since November 2020, when he first came down with the virus that causes COVID-19.

At first, the effects of the illness were mild, but they persisted and took away his breath — then it began to take away his short term memory. The one thing the virus has not been able to touch, though, is his attitude.

He speaks of the time he spent in the hospital but can’t remember how long or how bad his condition had gotten. But now he sits in his office with a comfortable smile and speaks of it all as if it were all just a long, boring drive through the flatlands of Kansas.

“I’m a long hauler,” he said using a term doctors use to describe people who have lingering effects of COVID.

In his case, the virus and its long-term effects seem to be working overtime. The cyclist can’t wait to get on his bike and pedal more than the 6 miles that his healing lungs can now support.

He’s led an interesting and somewhat adventurous life, cycling across Ohio and making trips into Pennsylvania.

And when in Europe? He has done as the natives do and ridden that bike.

A native of New Jersey, Webster said he knew a famous musician before he ever released an album, before he became a celebrity that everyone now knows as Bruce Springsteen. Webster hung out at the clubs on the vibrant Jersey Shore music scene, and Springsteen was there before his group was called the E Street Band.

“This guy’s going places,” Webster recalled himself and his friends saying to each other after watching the early Boss perform. “He was great then.”

Webster is resilient, even working through the slow-moving cognitive thinking, or “fogginess,” from COVID that extends back to last Thanksgiving and Christmas. He said he has no recollection of that holiday season at all.

“They say I was sick like carrying the flu for months,” he said, adding that the coughing lasted for four months.

The shortness of breath also put a strain on his heart, but he said he is strong now and his blood pressure is fine. Sometimes now he can ride his bike further than 6 miles, but it’s tiring and the fatigue lingers as well.

Some of his memories have edges of fogginess, as if they aren’t quite in focus and the lines are blurred. He’s read up on the Dead Sea Scrolls, but he said much of those documents are in fragments and compares that to his fragmented memories.

“I get bits and pieces of a presence of a memory but I can’t put a full memory together,” he said with a little frustration showing through. “I’m exhausted all the time, fatigue is crunching.”

Webster said his doctors really don’t know what to make of the lingering complications, but it’s not all doom and gloom for the energetic reverend who has dedicated his life to serving the Martins Ferry community.

And he’s far from dealing with this dilemma alone, as he’s surrounded by what he called a great support system that includes his wife, children and the people of the church and the community.

“It’s a great place,” he gushed about the city. “I’m blessed to be here. This is a cool place with good folks.”

Coats, free for the taking, hang from a rack outside the church at the corner of Hanover and Fourth streets. Hats and mittens will be given away starting in the middle of December through the spring of 2022. The church also has a food pantry to supplement meals for those in the area and to act as a warming house for people who’ve lost their electricity during emergencies.

And then there’s the live jazz music at 410 Hanover St. inside the Holy Grounds Cafe. It’s a place for people to meet, talk, and enjoy the sounds of live music.

Webster also hopes to open a youth center in time for Christmas.

“Everybody’s got something, you just have to keep moving forward,” he said with a smile that he wears well.

It appears that Webster’s sturdy support system, with the aid of some heavy-duty vitamins, goes a long way.