Okay, this will be my last link to a NY Times story for the week. It’s a short essay by a husband describing how he and his wife found ways to cope after she became a paraplegic in a car accident. He writes frankly about the challenges they both faced in the ensuing years, but his tone isn’t one of self-pity. Instead, he’s confident and defiant. He writes:
We’ve rolled up and down the hills of Tuscany, squeezed into pubs in Ireland, explored narrow streets in Paris and Rome, gone to Red Sox games, had coffee in the sunshine in San Francisco, Portland, Chicago and Miami. And we’ve learned that alongside great loss we can still have a great life. We want it so badly, and we love it so much.
I’m not in a relationship at the moment, but if I should ever be so lucky, I hope my partner and I are as adventurous and unyielding as this couple.
That was a wonderful article. What a tribute to this man’s wife, and what a hymn on Life itself.
The message is so true: alongside great loss, one can still have a great life.
“Even if you don’t have a relationship”, I’d add.