My wife reminded me of why I love her today.

My wife and I have been together since we were teens. April marked 22 years of marriage. Our children are grown now, and we’ve made some drastic changes to our lives. We’ve moved to another area of the country, and I got a much needed surgery. Today I had my follow up appointment. I can’t drive, and the doctor is roughly four hours from our new home. My wife has been taking care of me, and it’s been a strain in our marriage, because I take care of her normally. I honestly hate being a burden, and hate being the one in need. Normally I do almost all our driving, make her breakfast in bed, and enjoy cooking. She’s taking over those responsibilities, happily, but I miss doing it. I still managed to get her breakfast in bed on her recent birthday(I bought muffins). She gets upset with me, afraid I’m going to hurt myself. Combine this with our children being adults now, and I’m sure she feels less useful too, which is probably part of why she yells at me when I do things she thinks I will hurt myself doing.

Well we’re on our way home from the follow up appointment as I write this, about three hours to go. It’s raining here now, but a little bit ago it was storming hard enough that my wife couldn’t drive. We pulled into a truck stop that had a Hardee’s in it, and decided to eat while waiting out the storm. In the middle of the meal, my wife suddenly got up in a way I knew something was wrong. She told me she would be back, and then she sits at a booth with a young lady that was/is employed there. We’re hours away from anyone we know, and neither have ever been here before, so I was slightly confused.

Turns out my wife noticed the young lady, probably early twenties, almost in tears, and trying to call the suicide prevention hotline, but not getting through. I have no clue how she noticed, but she did. Her instinct was just to be there with that young lady. She literally dropped everything, and focused on helping her, making sure she had the help she needed. She sat there, talked to her, and did her best to make sure that girl got help. Ultimately she helped her get through for help.

From what I was able to gather, the young ladies manager yelled at her over time management. I heard her telling them about her ADHD, and losing track of time. I don’t know the story, don’t need to. I’m just happy my wife was there to help. Her heart and compassion for others is the biggest reason I fell in love with her, and something she displayed today. I’m sitting in the passenger seat writing this, and can’t really talk to her because she’s so nervous driving in this rain. I can hardly wait to get home, hold her, and tell her how amazing she is. She’s been yelling at me a lot recently for doing too much myself, and not allowing her to help me. I think I understand better in the moment. I’m going to have to work on being less stubborn.

TL;DR

my wife helped a young lady who was feeling suicidal, and it reminded of how I love her heart and compassion. It also reminded me that I need to allow her to show me that love.