My love story at 48 years old
When I got engaged at the ripe old age of 47 in the year 2000, I said to my husband-to-be, who knew I had diabetes but more in the figurative sense than actually seeing it close-up and on the ground, “If you want to rethink this, I won’t hold it against you. I don’t know what’s in store for my future and I would never want to be a burden to you.”
He wrapped his arms around me, just as I’d hoped, and said, “You’re with me now and I’m with you and we will do this together.”
And we have. He’s my partner in life and in my diabetes and at times in my work. He’s prouder of me than anyone has a right to be and I don’t know where I’d be without him.
I’m reminded of that early moment in our history because in the current American Diabetes Association’s Forecast magazine, March 2011, the reflection column brought it all back. “A Life Together” expresses very much the same sentiments of a husband who married a woman with type 1 diabetes and took it on. And that was back in 1951. He’s now 80 and they’ve been married 57 years. She is blessedly complication-free, and yes she’s worked at it, and he says “our love is far stronger today than it was when we got married.”
Remember, when they got married meters didn’t exist, which came out in the early 1980’s, no insulin pumps, and a guaranteed uncertain future.
But here’s to love! I found myself tearing up reading the article and want to thank the author, Myron Schultz, for drawing such a beautifully woven and warm wrap around us all while baring his soul. May a thousand mitzvahs land on your doorstep Myron.
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