Skip to main content

A Truly Beautiful Valentine

Yesterday was the best Valentine's Day! I didn't get roses or a kiss from a special someone. Heck - there isn't even a special someone at all! But yesterday I saw first-hand what Valentine's Day, and love, are truly about.

An amazing friend of mine has stood by her boyfriend's side for the last year and a half as he has battled cancer. Their story wasn't supposed to play out like this. They fell in love. They were supposed to get married and live happily ever after with beautiful fat babies. Right? Isn't that how a love story is supposed to go?

But that's not how their story went. He got cancer. And their story changed forever. Instead of planning a wedding and savoring the giddy moments of a growing love, she gave up her entire life to be by his side every step of the way. She has slept on hospital beds for weeks during his chemo treatments. She has organized fundraiser after fundraiser, sold her car and given up everything of monetary value to raise money for the bone marrow transplant he needed to save his life but insurance refused to cover. Words cannot even begin to express the level of sacrifice, loyalty and love she has shown.

And yesterday, I went to her house at 9:35 at night. I found her in sweats and a hat, cleaning her house. She had been cleaning for hours and hours - disinfecting every inch and preparing for today. Today he will be released from the hospital. He is completely immunocompromised after an intense 3 weeks in the hospital for a full bone marrow transplant. And for the next 100 days, he will be staying in the spare bedroom of her Mom's house so she can continue to be by his side and help him through his recovery.

I hope and pray that some day their story will yet hold a magnificent wedding, beautiful fat babies and days of bliss. I hope future Valentine's Days will bring roses, fancy dinners and romantic get aways for them. But today, Valentine's Day looks like disinfectants, vacuum cleaners and washrags. Today, true love looks like sweats and a baseball cap.

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." - John 15:13

Comments

Dave Cebrowski said…
Very nice story. Give your friend a hug. People often focus only on the patient, and not realize that the caregiver, spouse, girlfriend, etc is under as much stress, and at the very least, emotional pain, as the patient. They need our prayers too; prayers for strength, peace, patience, courage.
February 16, 2012 at 10:08 AM
Baby Sister said…
That is such a beautiful story!! I hope it turns out well for them as well.
March 5, 2012 at 9:59 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Christmas in November

A lot of friends have been talking about how much they hate Christmas creeping into (or completely taking over) November. So I started thinking about the issue - because apparently it's a big one and obviously something I should be thinking about, right? I think Thanksgiving suffers from severe middle-child syndrome. Halloween comes first and is a little bit crazy but well recognized, highly celebrated and ridiculously loved. Then there's Christmas, the ever impatient youngest child who can't wait their turn...ever. Plus Christmas is the 'favorite' child - it's loved, celebrated, commercialized, overpriced and way over represented. And Thanksgiving just sits back and gets run over by these two crazy holidays on either side of it. It never complains when people forget it or when international businesses schedule important meetings that day (ugh...speaking from experience on that). Thanksgiving doesn't mind giving the lime light to the other two. Why? Becaus...
5 comments
Read more

Battle of The Bands

On my right is my boss - blasting classical Christmas music. On my left is my co-worker - blasting oldies in an effort to drown out the classical Christmas music. Then there's me - plugged into Pandora, listening to Adele "Someone Like You". And not only is the music blasting - but randomly, my co-worker starts singing along to her oldies station so my boss starts humming Christmas tunes really loudly. I sorta feel obligated to unplug my iPod and start singing out loud too. Too bad our other co-worker isn't here to blast and sing along to her Spanish tunes. That would be the icing on the cake.
1 comment
Read more

Suprise! I'm Getting Married!

Stories are great. And everyone seems especially interested in this one. So, here it is. We were supposed to go to the gym Tuesday for lunch. But I got a text 20 minutes before he showed up saying he wanted to talk instead. Immediately my stomach sunk. I just knew he was going to break up with me or something horrible like that. Well, he picked me up and we started driving - I had no idea where we were going until we turned up the road by the Timpanogos temple. Then I thought - 'There are only two reasons we would be going to the temple. 1) He is going to propose or 2) He is going to break up with me and knows I can't kill him if he does it on temple grounds.' I'm morbid - I know. We got out and sat on the grass and I had to remind him he wanted to talk. He was like, 'Oh yeah. I almost forgot.' Nerd. So he started talking about our first date and the first time he knew he wanted to be with me and the things he loved about me. Then he started talking about ho...
8 comments
Read more