It was slipped into the presentation by the intern during her presentation. He and his wife had been married for over fifty years. Longer than any of the members of their care team had been alive.
"What is the secret to being married for fifty-some-odd years?" I asked in front of our entire team. It was the end of the encounter, so I just had to ask.
He looked up from his hospital bed and responded matter-of-factly. "Well. You have to put up with each others' mess. Pretty much. That's it."
"That's it? That's the secret?"
Then she chimed in. "There are a lot of good days. But there's gon' be some bad days, too. But that's okay long as you both trying."
"Hmmm."
He let out a moist cough and then followed up after his wife with a few more words. "See, I made a vow. We both did. And when you both stick with what you promised, you don't need no secret."
"That's a good word, sir."
"It's jest the truth is all."
"And nothing but the truth, sir."
His wife looked me in the eye and gave me a hard nod of her head; it was her way of cosigning this gospel according to them and their fifty-some-odd years of marriage. Yes, it was.
And this? This is Grady. And I know I say it over and over and over again--but I'm just glad to be here bearing witness to this gospel every day.
***
Happy Saturday.
And Lord knows we all have mess to put up with. Beautiful!
ReplyDeleteThey were so cute. I always ask the couple married more than 25 years what the secret is. And you know? It's almost always some version of what this couple said. It's an unselfish walk that, if bidirectional in effort, works out just fine.
ReplyDelete