I listen to your program on podcast, so often I am catching up with calls that are a few days old. I heard a call from a woman with four children. While she was in labor, her husband left her for four hours to be elsewhere in the hospital. She said she might never forgive him or trust him again.
My labor was 27 hours long and unproductive before the doctors determined both I and my infant might die if an emergency C-section wasn't performed. It was and both my baby boy and I were fine. But during my long labor, my husband left the hospital several times to go to the office and work. Because my labor wasn't progressing, he felt "nothing" was happening, and he might as well not lose a work day. I was angry, crushed, and carried that feeling for years.
This year, a large, invasive cancer was discovered in my nose and cheek, and after it was removed, a series of surgeries was begun to reconstruct my face. My husband has not left my side. He has been there for every surgery, every doctor appointment. Even on the first day of surgery, he has told me I am beautiful when a portion of my hairline was shaved, surgical staples were in my scalp and stitches were from my forehead to the side of my mouth. I guess in the 22 years since our son was born, the profundity of our commitment to each other has deepened and emerged. The good news is my surgeon is an artist, and in a year from now, it will be difficult to tell that anything ever happened to me.
Like marriage, my reconstruction is a marathon, not a sprint.This year, my dear husband and I will celebrate 33 years of marriage.
Maggie
