I Finally Understand What it Means to Love Someone

It was exactly a week ago, I was sitting where I am now, at my laptop in our bedroom. I was killing time until the van came to take me to a doctor’s appointment. My wife walked by heading to the bathroom.

She staggered and fell, she tried to get up, but she collapsed to the floor. I had a stroke almost ten years ago, that’s what I thought happened to my wife. I immediately called 911. She was in I.C.U for a week, but she finally will be home today.

I owe Olivia so much, she has taught me what it means to love, really love a woman. I’m sixty-one years old, and until I started talking to Olivia I had never been in love. I was infatuated at times, I was in lust a lot of times, but caring about a person? Not so much.

That all changed when I met Olivia. It’s such an improbable love story. She was in South Carolina; I was in Minnesota on the streets homeless. We have been married for four years now. The past few months have brought it home how much she means to me.

Olivia has taught me what it means to love, she has taught me by her words and actions. I thought of six examples. I know there are more, but these six were at the top of my head.

Love means I need to be patient. My wife and I are both Dyslexic, we both have been told how slow and dumb we are. I have to contain my frustration when she loses the remote for the tv and yells for me to find it several times a day.

I also have to be patient when I’m concentrating on my writing and she yells for me to help her with her laptop, fixing something that I showed her dozens of times how to fix. It’s one of those things that irritates me when she is here, but I miss those things when she is gone.

I have never considered myself a selfish person, but I was more selfish than I thought I was. I happily head to the bedroom to watch sports so she can watch her CNN or other crap. I share my time; I help her when I could be writing. Perhaps I’m not progressing with my writing as fast as I would like to, but that’s not important, what’s important is my relationship with my wife.

For the first time in my life, I have someone that I truly love more than myself. I would freely give my life for her, if that isn’t loving, I don’t know what is. We have been married four years, and I can honestly say that I never have taken her for granted.

Loving Olivia has made me a better man in so many ways. I’m a better listener, I’m not as reserved around strangers, I have more confidence in myself and I believe in my abilities as a writer.

It is interesting to me that by putting my wife first and helping her be a better person, she has made me a better person without me realizing it. I find myself praying and reading my Bible more often. I’m not as hotheaded as I can be, and I’m a better listener.

I love and appreciate my wife, I always have and I always will, the past week has shown me that the love I have for her is well-deserved. I’m nothing without her, and I will never let her forget how awesome she is.

Part of not letting her forget is making sure she manages her Diabetes. She tended to not check her sugar and she compounded that mistake by not eating right. The doctors put her on Insulin, and I have to make sure she takes her Metformin.

Love means caring for a person, it doesn’t matter if they are sick, or if they are dying. I know that my wife has always been there for me, and I will always be there for her. Together, we are unstoppable.

I haven’t always been so caring. I have lived an emotionally stunted life. Loving Olivia has made me more human and a better man. We bring out the best in each other, and we lift each other up, and that’s about the best definition of love I can think of.