Spouse Appreciation Day

My husband, Mr. G has been nothing short of magnificent throughout my recovery from the total hip replacement. His loving care and almost hovering concern allowed me to completely relax into recovery mode. It's not easy for me to accept a huge amount of help almost ever. There's a part of me that's independent to a fault and I bristle when someone is doing for me what I believe I can do for myself. This is illustrated by my walker story.

I was still using the walker ten days after the surgery. Mr. G was still getting up with me in the middle of the night when I had to clomp my way to the bathroom with the walker. I was sleeping downstairs in the TV room because at that point I couldn't handle the stairs. So we worked out a deal where I would call him from my cell phone to the house phone and he would come down and supervise me making my way to the toilet. One night on about the 11th day after surgery I awoke and thought, "this is silly, I can do this myself" and I clomped my way to the bathroom as quietly as possible. Then I clomped my way back and got into bed. Well, he heard me and, picture this, he came downstairs half naked, in just his Tshirt, still wearing his mouthguard. He was very annoyed with me and obviously concerned for my safety. He shook his finger and said, "You sshoudddn't get up by yourssthelf! I'm sstheriousth! You ssshhould'nt!" I tried to be grateful but he sounded so 'sthilly' I couldn't help it, I laughed so hard I almost fell out of bed.

Humor and the ability to see it in ordinary moments, makes for a great relationship.

There is always the mystery of why and how we were so fortunate to find each other and have such a loving relationship for well over 40 years. The truth is we are both stubborn, opinionated, have 'strong personalities', are sometimes argumentative know-it-alls, and these are just a few of our tragic flaws. On the other hand, he is the calm to my anxious, he is the logic to my shoot-from-the hip, he is the reasonable to my un, he is Mr. Consumer Reports to my snap decisions, he is the tall to my short, the philosophical to my worry-wart and the partner in crime to all my nutty ideas. In some respects, this relationship/marriage shouldn't work but oddly enough it does. Of course, great love for each other binds us together. That, and the ability to have a heated argument, be over with it in minutes, and sometimes laugh about it later. "I'm sstheriousth."

susansmagicfeather copyright 2013 Susan R. Grout all rights reserved