1/🧵 Wanna learn from a 61-year love affair? ❤️
They met at a drive-in burger joint in Memphis. Elvis blaring.
He peered into a car of 6 teenage girls & saw her.
💭 “That’s the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.”
They’ve been madly in love ever since.
(Pics & story w perm)
2/ Pain feeds pain, but love & gratefulness starve pain…
Mr. M came into the ICU w sepsis & shortness of breath.
We placed him on life support to help reduce his suffering. The disease proved too much.
Fortunately, sadness & despair took a back seat to what happened next…
3/ In 1961, the night they met, the teens went to a bowling alley.
She didn’t have permission, so she walked home.
He found the girls & asked, where’s your friend who was sitting in the back seat?
He couldn’t get his mind off her smile…
4/ So he went to her house & knocked on the door.
“Doctor, he told me, ‘you’re the most special girl I’ve ever met.’”
A year later they were married.
He became an engineer & they had 3 children.
A life full of hard work & blessings, until COVID. Isolation took its toll.
5/ “It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love." Bonhoeffer
As he got sick, she arranged an ambulance & has been at his bedside ever since.
Mrs. M whispered to me, “Our hearts are sewn together, Doctor.”
6/ Mrs. M called the gas company to pay their bill (old school 😌)…
A total stranger over the phone listened to their story and got 30 office mates together to sign a card & pack them a bag of mints that read, “You 2 were MINT to be together in forever & ever.”
She cried.
7/ As it became clear he wasn’t improving & didn’t want more life support, we removed the ventilator and adjusted his meds to keep him comfortable.
I asked, “What matters most to you, Sir? I’d like to grant you 3 wishes.”
(a la Dr. Deborah Cook’s data - bit.ly/3Jlg0HN
8/ “Doctor, what matters most to me is (1) to be with my family and (2) have all of us drink a beer together (3) sharing stories. Those are my golden ticket wishes.”
So our ICU team set out to make it happen…like we did recently for Mrs F👇
9/ Through the night, she sat at his side, never once dozing off.
I was mesmerized as stories spilled out about their marriage, parenting, and hardships that forged their bond.
He talked as well, until he couldn’t any more.
She kept whispering to him…
10/ Always tell others what you need them to know.
Every moment counts.
These two people modeled for me what it means truly to be present for another.
She explained, “I gained weight in age, but he always said I was the most beautiful person he’d ever seen…”
11/ “Doctor, I’m not a special or fancy person. I’m simple, But to him, I’m everything. And to me, that’s all that matters.”
They made a promise, a covenant, and they kept it.
What makes such a marriage?
12/ “All the things that make marriage a success are in their nature undramatic things, the silent growth of an instinctive confidence, the common wounds and victories, the accumulation of customs and courtesies, the rich maturing of old jokes and retold stories.” GKC
13/ I see in them something beyond riches.
Their love far exceeds anything one can earn on paper.
Over a lifetime, they have trained for & won an Olympic medal of love.
It was our privilege to serve…to provide his 3 wishes.
Uplift others.
Provide #Mercy & #Humanism.
14/fin
“I do not wish you joy without sorrow,
nor endless days without healing dark,
nor brilliant sun without restful shadows.
I do wish you love, strength, & wisdom
I wish you songs & also blessed silence
& God's sweet peace when every day is done.”
~Dorothy McDonald
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.