We'll Make It

I had been married two years when my wife had the first signs of Multiple Sclerosis. I was thirty-six and had been divorced eight years before I'd married Jane.   As any couple, we were concerned and did what we could to find out what was wrong. I'd worry and she'd say as long as we loved each other, we'd make it. As she grew worse during the years, I took over more and more of the housework, cooking, and the kids. No matter what life threw at us, Jane said that if we loved each other we would make it.  We lived a day at a time. Life threw us many curve balls but we managed to persevere. Our two children had ADHD, which presented many challenges in school and socially. At fifty-five, I had pancreatitus and had to be in the hospital for almost eight months. I almost died eight times after nine surgeries. I remember waking up one day and finding Jane asleep in her wheelchair, clinging onto my legs. I patted her hair and she woke up and smiled at me. Her words were simple: "I love you and we're going to make it." I got out of the hospital and went back to work three months later and was allowed to work from home. Two years later my company reduced their work force and I was let go. Jane never worried because as long as we were together, we'd make it. Three years later I had to have cancer surgery. The results of the surgery didn't allow me to take care of Jane any longer. I got out of the hospital and immediately went to see her in the nursing home. I felt so defeated. Jane pulled me to her in front of our friends and whispered in my ear that we were going to make it.  Eight and one-half years she spent in the nursing home and we did make it. No matter what life threw at us we made it. Life took most of our savings but it never defeated us.

While in that nursing home, I'd write and read my stories and novels to Jane. When she knew she was going to die, she insisted that I start my writing career because now I would have the time. While many of my friends are enjoying a leisurely retirement, I am starting my last career at seventy. By the middle of February I'll have two books on Amazon available in paperback and the Kindle. I am working on my third novel and hope to finish it by June. Sometime in the still of the night, as I sit hunched over my computer, I hear her whisper in my ear: "We'll make it."