Amazing Love

It never ceases to amaze me; the older I get the more fascinated I become.  I’m talking of those couples that we all know who love one-another truly in sickness and in health.  Those couples of whom one of the two develops some devastating, incurable illness (such as Alzheimer’s Disease) and the other faithfully and lovingly cares for the other, even though the healthy person, too, is even then grieving over the loss.
It happened at our church recently.  And older couple—Bob and Enid—had been together for 61 years.  Enid developed Alzheimer’s some time back.  Bob himself is on the older side of life, and could not care for her himself.  However, he brought her to church, had a care-giver for her, and provided for her as no one else could.
When we first came to church there, he introduced Enid to me as his lovely and wonderful wife, even though she probably didn’t have any idea where she was or what was going on.  When the communion was passed, they made sure she was able to taste the bread and the wine.  They sat together, along with Enid’s care-giver, and Bob was always watching out for her.
I don’t know Bob and Enid well, as we’ve just moved to the community.  But in my experiences in health care, I’ve seen that same dedication and devotion to a spouse time after time.  It’s enough to make a grown man cry, and I sometimes do.
Daily visits to the nursing home where one may be residing, bathing, grooming, visiting, taking on outings, and a myriad of other activities are undertaken by both as they are able.  They sit, they visit, they hold hands, they kiss.  And even though one of the two usually has some form of dementia, the fire of love is still there, traveling between them, continuing to burn—yet not consume.
I am reminded of God’s promise to us, “I will never leave you or forsake you.”  Each time I see a couple in a situation like I’ve described, I’m again reminded that true love never, never, ever fails.