There you are with nine other lepers. What a terrible disease. First the loss of feeling, then the loss of hair, feet, hands, nose, eyes, etc. Your own family treats you like some grotesque monster. You subsist on alms given by strangers. From time to time you cry out, “Unclean, unclean,” to warn away the unsuspecting. What a dread, dread disease this leprosy. 

Misery loves company, though. Thank God for these fellow lepers. Deep in your heart you long for the company of whole persons, persons who have not been so disfigured. But that day is over. You will never hold your wife or your children again. You have only the company of other lepers. At least the ten of you can band together, comfort one another, even make sad jokes about your sorrow. 

There you are with nine other lepers. You h…