WARNING
This will be a sappy blog about my wonderful husband and how much I love
him. So if you don't want to hear about how wonderful I think (know) he is,
then stop reading now!
(There are also a few details about illnesses)
Now that that's out of the way, let me explain the reason for this blog.
Eric and I have been married for almost 19 years, and from the beginning he has
been a God-send. He and I started dating about a year after I lost my mother.
Eric had never met my mother nor my father who had passed away 3 years before
my mother. I was 19 years old when we met, and Eric filled a void that I had
for a long time. He has the same sense of humor as my dad and the loving
gentleness of my mother. From the first week we dated, I was head over heals in
love with him and there was no turning back. In less than a month we were
talking about getting married and decided we would wait until he finished
college so he could get a job. A year and a half later we were walking down the
aisle.
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Our wedding day, 02/10/96, wow were young or what?! Lol |
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Us again with the late Fr. Decoteau who officiated our wedding |
A lot of people don't understand our relationship. I will try to explain
what I mean by that. We are “real” with each other- always have been, always
will be. I don't hold anything back and I don't expect him to either. I believe
in perfect honesty and will accept nothing less. We are fortunate enough to
share the same likes in hobbies, movies, adventure, travel and even friends. We
work next door to each other and ride to work together each day. We very rarely
spend any time apart from each other. We have been on vacations where we drove
for two weeks straight, camped and hiked in the mountains, ate out of the car
the entire time, and we never tired of each other and loved every minute of it.
I have had friends tell me that they couldn't spend that much time with their
spouse or they would go crazy. I couldn't think of anyone else I would rather
spend that much time with. We don't always agree on everything, but we are
pretty good at talking it out and coming to an agreement. We very rarely argue
though because we feel life is too short. Now, that's not to say we have always
gotten things right. We, like most couples, have had our fair share of ups and
downs. We have just matured and learned that you really don't sweat the small
stuff. Years ago, we stopped buying gifts and cards for each other for
birthdays, holidays, and anniversaries. This is a touchy topic for most
couples. People generally think that I gave in to Eric's persistence on the
subject because what woman would agree to no more gifts? But that couldn't be
further from the truth. Eric went along with it after I pushed the subject. We
are together almost 24/7 and we both hate to shop-unless it’s at a hardware
store. When or how would either of us be able to shop and hide anything from
the other? We discuss big ticket items
before purchasing. I think it is silly to give a list of things I want for him
to get for me and vise versa. Occasionally when one of us runs to the grocery
store without the other, we may pick up a "surprise" for each other,
like a candy bar or something we know the other would like. But that is the
extent of our gifts to each other.
We currently live on 11 acres of land and have lots of ongoing projects. We work together on ALL of these projects.
That includes building stuff, planting gardens and trees, cutting trees down,
trimming trees, working on and maintaining the tractor, cleaning the shop, mowing
grass and whatever else we need done around the property. In turn, he and I
share the housework duties. We both wash clothes and cook. He hates to clean
the kitchen when he cooks, so I happily do that for him. I hate to dust and
vacuum since it affects my allergies, so he graciously does that for me. We are
completely equal at everything. We both take care of each other when we are
sick or have any type of procedures. Since we have no children, I dedicate
everything to him when he needs me. I guess the motherly instinct kicks in when
I have to take care of him. And even though he would rather be left alone when
sick, I try my best to wait on him hand and foot. I probably aggravate the fire
out of him! When I am sick, he does the same for me. He makes sure I stay
hydrated, take my meds on time (something I am hardheaded about), and he fixes
me anything I need.
Now that you have a background on how our relationship works, here is the
real reason I am writing this blog. I am writing this to thank him and tell the
world how wonderful he is.
I recently had a tonsillectomy, which in children is a minor surgery but
for adults, not so much. It can be very painful with many complications for an
adult. Eric took a week of vacation to "take care" of me. I didn't
think he would really need to be here. After all, I would be in pain and unable
to eat or talk, so why would he need to be here? Boy was I wrong! I couldn't
have been able to get through this without him. From the time we left the
hospital, he was on duty. He drove to 3 pharmacies trying to find a pharmacy
that had the pain meds that were prescribed to me. He brought me home, got me
tucked in and propped up on the couch, set up a humidifier and diffuser. Then
back to the pharmacy to pick up the Rx he went. About an hour after the 1st
dose of liquid pain meds, the vomiting started. He was right there- holding my
hair, cleaning me and waiting for it to stop. I couldn't hold anything down.
The swelling was so bad and the pain from the stomach acid on the open wounds
was terrible, but he kept trying to give me different foods that he thought
would go down. Nothing helped- pudding, jello, ice cream, yogurt, you name it,
he tried. Three hours later, the vomiting was back and continued all night and
into the morning. By this time, I was so weak from not eating since the night
before the surgery that I couldn't even get off the couch. He brought the trash
can to me and sat and helped in anyway he could. When it was all done, he tried
once again to find something that I could stomach. I don't think I ate or kept
anything down that whole day/night. The next morning, he called the doctor's
office to see about a different prescription of pain meds and different anti
nausea meds since the ones I had clearly were not working. Because it is
classified as a narcotic, he had to go pick up the prescription and drop it off
at the pharmacy. Let me add that this was all after a very eventful night which
he had gotten little if any sleep. He basically sat on the end of the couch and
anytime I moved or made a sound, he was asking if I needed anything. Of course,
since I had other meds similar to it filled the day before, the insurance threw
it out and he was on the phone back and forth with everyone until they finally
worked it out. One more trip to town for him to pick up the meds. This trip, he
decided to get me a bag of marshmallows because he thought, if I could at least
suck on one every once and a while, I would at least be getting a little sugar
in my system if anything else. What do you know, it worked. The marshmallows
and broth were the only things I had in my system for 2-3 days. He even started
putting a spoonful of instant mashed potatoes in my broth so I would have a
little substance. Great idea! He slept on the floor two nights in a row so he
could be near me. He set his alarm to go off every 3 1/2 hours so he could wake
up and try to get me to eat or drink anything before giving me my next round of
meds. By day four, things started getting better, and he started sleeping in
our bed. I was still sleeping on the couch so I could be propped up to sleep.
He would still set his alarm and come give me my meds, even though I told him I
could do it myself. It is now day ten, and he is back to work and I am doing
much better but still in quite a bit of pain from time to time. I have started eating
a few soft foods and I see light at the end of the tunnel.
I'm usually a very tough person and I don't let ANYTHING bring me down.
When I had my hysterectomy, I was up and running real quick and back to work in
three weeks. I surprised everyone on that one, but I don't believe in laying
around when you don't have to. This time around, it was a much different story.
Maybe because I am older and it's a tough surgery to get through, but I can
honestly say, with out Eric I don't think I would have made it.
He was, is, and always will be my ROCK. They say every good man comes
from a good mother, so I must give credit where credit is due. His mother Cathy
Watts taught him well. She is as kind hearted and loving as he is. I guess the title
of this blog should be "My Husband, A gift from God, prepared by his
mother"
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This past Christmas, in front of the tree at his mother's house. |
I hope you enjoyed reading this love story about the love of my life who nursed me back to health.