But she's still my lovely wife

An 80-year-old man with a wounded thumb walked into a hospital to have the sutures removed. It was about 8.30 am. After checking the parameters, the nurse said he will have to wait for the doctor and it would take an hour.

He pleaded with the nurse, “I have an important appointment at 9 am. Could you please arrange for a doctor to have these sutures removed?” Looking at the old man’s desperation, she arranged for a doctor and had the sutures removed.

She then asked, “What was the urgency? He replied, “I have to have breakfast with my wife at 9 am.” She enquired, “Would she be angry if you were late?” With tears welling up in his eyes he told the nurse, “No. She no longer recognises me as her husband. My wife is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for the last five years. You know, it’s a kind of disease where she has lost her memory. She is at a nursing home ever since.”

“If she doesn’t recognise you then how does it matter?” the nurse said.
He replied with tears: “It does matter. She is still my lovely wife and I recognise her and the love she showed me all these years.”

At the matrimonial service at church, the bride and bridegroom make a promise to each other: “I take you as my husband (wife); I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, I will love you and honour you all the days of my life.”

If every couple made the promise consciously and in deep faith in God, marriages wouldn’t tear apart. St Paul says, “Love is patient, love is kind. Love is not boastful or arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things.” (I Corinthians 13:4-7).

There are situations in life at times, when you may not be repaid for the love you show, but the nobility lies in just loving unceasingly.

A young man convicted of murder stood before the jury heaping curses upon everyone. He hated everyone, even his own mother. The mother pleaded inconsolably before the judge, “Please pardon my son.” The judge said, “Why do you plead so much for your son, it is of no use. He hates everyone, he hates even you.”

Looking the judge in the eyes, she said: “He does not love me, but I love him, he is my son.”
Moved by the words of the mother, the judge only imposed a penalty and had the young man released. The young man embraced his mother, realised the true meaning of love a turned a new leaf in life.

Hatred breeds hatred, forgiveness breeds forgiveness, love breeds love and triumphs over the toughest hearts.