What was the first thing that popped into your brain when you read the title of this blog?
Maybe it was the guy who loses 100lbs first on the ranch during the Biggest Looser season and the joy he feels of conquering his weight battle. Or maybe it was bringing a small part of God’s beauty into focus from behind the camera lens.
I’m not one who has a lot of friends but I am blessed to have very good friends. I make a point to invest in those relationships and they, in turn, invest in me. Tonight though, I was invested in and I have no way of returning what was given to me. I don’t ordinarily use names in my blog but for tonight the use of a name is so very deserving. Everyone should have a friend like this….a friend like Jenny.
Jenny and I met in high school and became friends with a deep connection in what seemed like an instant. A friendship where we even lost contact with each other due to both of us moving multiple times for many years. If it had not been for Facebook we might not have reconnected at all even though we had both searched for each other on multiple occasions.
The inspiration tonight came in the form of one of our chat sessions. Before I go any further though, I have two questions for you to think about. What does it mean to you when you hear the marriage vows “To have and to hold, in sickness and in health”? What does it mean when the Bible says “She brings him good and not harm, all the days of her life”? Got your answers?
I thought about those words recently while I was listening to a local morning talk radio on my drive to work. Two of the three DJ’s were praising the actions of the American Idol hopeful who opted to stay with his fiancé after she was severely injured in a car accident and would forever be changed from what she mentally and esthetically once was while the third DJ was criticizing him for sticking around. The words of the American Idol hopeful “What kind of man would I be if I left her when she needed me the most”?
I’ve also thought about the meaning of those words as I’ve watched family and/or friends struggle with different illnesses but tonight, tonight it hit home.
Jenny isn’t much of a complainer, she never has been. I’m not sure she even really knows how. I remember when she had back surgery in HS and we would hang out at her house so that she would get to hang out with her friends when she couldn’t go out. She rarely said anything more than she “needed to rest her back”. She still isn’t a complainer.
Jenny isn’t one of those types who plasters a smile on her face and always tell you that everything is great though either. I don’t, and never have, related to those types. She’s real, she has a smile that radiates and a heart of gold, and that I relate to.
Tonight I asked her how her Valentine’s Day was. She said it was good and that her kids had a nice day. I knew right there that something was very, very wrong.
I asked her how J was and there was a long delay…one of the longest delays we’ve ever had in a conversation. Finally she came back and told me what was going on. She told me that he is able to feed himself but that she has to change and bath him in bed. Yes you read that correctly. She changes and bathes her husband. We are the same age. Would you ever dream of being in your 30’s and caring for your beloved in that manner?
People leave marriages for a myriad of “reasons”. She gained weight and I just wasn’t attracted to her anymore, he lost his job and just wasn’t the “man” anymore, and it goes on, and people leave their marriages for things far less taxing than a spouse slowly passing away.
Men say they are looking for their “Wife of Noble Character” and women say they strive to be just that. Jenny is…she is my inspiration.
No comments:
Post a Comment