It was approximately 8:30 a.m. on a busy morning when an elderly gentleman in his eighties arrived to have stitches removed from his thumb.
He told me kindly that he was in a hurry, because he had an appointment at 9:00 a.m.
I took his vital signs and asked him to please wait there in the room for one of the doctors.
I knew it was going to take more than an hour before someone would to able to attend to him. After I saw him check his watch anxiously for the time, I decided I would evaluate his wound, since I was not busy with another patient.
On examination, I saw that the wound was well healed. So, I spoke to one of the doctors to get the supplies I would need to remove his sutures and redress the wound.
We began to engage in a conversation while I was taking care of his wound. I asked him if he had another doctor’s appointment later, since he was in such a hurry.
The gentleman told me no. He said that he needed to go to the nursing home to have breakfast with his wife. When I asked about her health, he told me that she had been in the nursing home for a while. She was a victim of Alzheimer’s Disease.
I probed further and asked if he thought she would be upset if he was slightly late. He replied that she no longer knew who he was. With his head down, he whispered softly that she had not been able to recognize him for the last five years.
Intrigued, I asked him, “And you still go every morning, even though she doesn’t know who you are?”
He smiled as he patted my hand and said, “No, she doesn’t know me, but I still know who she is.”
I had goose bumps, as I thought to myself, “That is the kind of love I want in my life.”
True love is neither physical, nor romantic. True love is an acceptance of all that is, has been, will be ... and will never be.
[Author Unknown]
“A writer soon learns that easy to read is hard to write.” ~CJ Heck
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