My husband Gary gave me a trip to Hawaii for our tenth wedding anniversary. It just happened to last two years and included our six kids and household goods.
With the kids, ages 8 years and younger with one on the way, we discovered within a year of arriving in Hawaii that I had Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. If you do have to have a serious illness, I can recommend to do that in Hawaii.
I just thought I was tired. I thought that explained my lack of appetite. I really didn’t have time to stop and make a doctor’s appointment. It’s amazing what certain words like “cancer” do to make you stop and go to the doctor’s office.
I didn’t realize what a drain it had been on Gary, his dealing with my two bouts of cancer, until about a month after the final treatments ended. So many people focus on YOU when you’re the sick one. People brought me gifts, went with me to the hospital, and sent cards. During the months we dealt with losing the baby, my repeated trips to the ER, and hospitalization, Gary just kept plugging, showing no signs of distress. He ended up shaving my head when I was losing my hair–nothing you can possibly anticipate, all while trying to love and live with six little kids. I remember being about a month out from the chemo, looking at Gary and thinking, “Woah, you’ve been through it, too, and no one is paying much attention to you.”
So glad that our marriage vows included the love in sickness (now) and in health (all the goodness of the past 10 years) promise, because we had to take that to the bank.