I didn’t know, how could I have known, that when I heard my husband promise to love me in sickness and in health at the age of 29, that I’d fall sick, really sick, within the first two years of marriage.
Our wedding anniversary is today, March 2nd and my diaversary is the month prior. In 2011, I didn’t know if I would live to celebrate our two years of Holy Matrimony because of swift the onset of hyperglycemia was and the lapse in my medical team to identify it. When I was finally told that the unknown thing that was sending me into a coma was diabetes, I didn’t know if my husband would honor his words…to love me in sickness. After all, you only truly know someone when the going gets tough and you need them, and prior to my diagnosis, I didn’t need him to that degree.
I felt horrible! I wasn’t suppose to be the one to pull the “even in sickness” card, I was groomed to be a caregiver like most other women (and black women in particular) that I know. But there I was. It was me standing in need.
I had so many questions about how this would change things. Would he still love me and my diabetes until death did is part? What if I couldn’t or chose not to have children after the diagnosis? The layered burden of unending questions were overwhelming.
Hearing his words, “of course I will still love you,” were the soothing balm I needed to hear and I am thankful that I have heard them year after year for thirteen years.
44 years ago, I almost called off the engagement because I did not think Sheryl was tough enough to handle diabetes. I just knew that she had no idea what she was about to say yes to.
Well, 44 years later that has never once been an issue. Someday I hope you will not have to know what it is like to wake up with tubes and wires everywhere following open-heart surgery. but if you ever do, nothing feels as good as having your spouse there.