by Marilynn Chadwick
When people meet my now 97-year-old dad, they often ask me, “What’s his secret?” “How does your dad look so young and stay so sharp?” Daddy would be the first to tell you that part of his secret is that he had a great wife. He was married to my mom for nearly 70 years.
My mother was nearly bedridden for the last ten or so years of her life. A ruptured appendix and complications from a subsequent surgery robbed a once robust grandmother of her ability to walk. Some of her ability to think and talk faded, but enough of her razor-sharp mind remained to make conversation possible, though difficult. Daddy insisted upon caring for her at home, with the help of nurses’ aids to help him with wheelchair transfers and daily care.
If you asked them, Mom and Dad would each say they “married up.” Mom would always tell us three girls how lucky she was to find Daddy. And Dad said he was just glad his “turn in line” with the other young men who wanted to date Mom finally came. To which Mom would answer back, “Well I was hoping you would ask me out!” In her last years, Dad would look at my mom, lying in the bed after he had just brushed her hair, and say to me, “Doesn’t she look pretty?”
Few could imagine the daunting challenges Mom and Dad faced on a daily basis just to live at home. Dad would do all of the grocery shopping, the cooking, the cleaning, the laundry. On top of that, he would perform medical procedures for her each day. Catheters, baths, diapers. There were also occasional trips to the emergency room and hospitalizations because of infections.
Dad’s caregiver role began after Mom’s ruptured appendix. Even then, he managed the daily cleaning of Mom’s open abdominal wound for weeks after her emergency surgery. Sometimes, his bad back would flare up, but he would keep at it.
In good times and hard times, Mom and Dad honored their wedding vows. That just by itself is a legacy of honor which they have passed on to David and me, to our children, and their children.
A legacy of honor must be tended to and cared for so that it can grow and mature for generations to come.
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This series is adapted from the book, 8 Great Ways to Honor Your Husband by Marilynn Chadwick. To download your free PDF copy of this book, please visit our website by clicking here!