"Companionship"

 "Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour." (Ecclesiastes 4:9 KJV)

  "If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or is your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything? But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it. How strange a body would be if it had only one part! Yes, there are many parts, but only one body. The eye can never say to the hand, "I don't need you." The head can't say to the feet, "I don't need you." In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary." (1 Corinthians 12:17-22 NLT)

 As some of you might know, there are several different things that happened in the span of about seven years, which I believe God wanted me to witness, in order to strengthen my commitment to taking care of my wife, indefinitely and with a committed heart. The first of which happened while she was in the hospital for those first three months. 

 One day, I was sitting next to her bed, watching Fox News, and they showed a video of a woman named Terri, who was living in a care facility located in Florida. I believe that God wanted me to see this, because Terri was in the same condition as my wife, and she had been there for 15 years. Her husband had since moved on, living with another woman and had two kids by her; while his wife was, secured in a care facility, as he waited for her to die.

 Apparently, he got tired of waiting, making every effort he could to have her killed by withholding her food and hydration until she would dry up and die. Her parents and siblings wanted to care for her, but the husband wouldn't allow it. The Govenor of Florida stopped her starvation, and had her feeding tube put back, and she remained protected for a short while.

 Eventually, her husband found a Judge to overturn her protection, the feeding tube was removed, and she died a slow, terrible death, that took 12 days for her to pass! I saw that as the complete opposite of what I would do; making my commitment to care for my wife my first and foremost priority. 

 When it was time for my wife to be discharged from the hospital, I was given a list of care facilities to have her placed in. I went about checking each facility, but only one was even close to worthy of her being at, because they had a dorm type setting, and cats running around inside the living area. Marianne loves cats! 

 Just 24 hours before they were going to transfer her to that facility, they called her doctor and told them that could not accept her, because she had a trech; apparently, they had no RN staffing after hours, and therefore they had no way to legally attend to her raspatory issues during those hours. So I told the doctors that I was going to take her home. They said that would not be possible, because her care was not the 'home-care' kind of care she required. 

 Long story short, she has been home ever since, and has only been back to the hospital for screening; and every six months she is taken to a walk-in clinic to verify she is still with us. It is my opinion that she probably would not still be with us if I had followed the doctor's orders. Whether or not that is bad or good, is in the eye of the beholder; I still love to hold her...

"Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance." (1 Corinthians 13:7 NLT)