Having a goal based on love is the greatest life insurance in the world.
If anyone had asked my Dad why he got up in the morning, the person asking would have found the answer to be disarmingly simple, “To make my wife happy.”
Mom and Dad met when they were nine. Every day before school, they would meet on a park bench with their homework. Mom would correct Dad’s English, and he would do the same with her math. Upon graduation, their teachers said that the two of them were the best “student” in school.
They took their time in building their relationship, even though Dad always knew she was the girl for him. Their first kiss occurred when they were 17, and their romance continued to grow into their 80s.
Just how much power their relationship created was brought to light in 1964.
The doctor told Dad he had cancer and estimated that he had six months to one year left, at the most.
“Sorry to disagree with you, Doc,” my Father said, “but I’ll tell you how long I have. My time remaining will be one day longer than my wife’s. I love her too much to leave the planet without her.”
And so it was—to the amazement of everyone who didn’t really know this love-matched pair—that when Mom passed away at the age of 85, Dad followed her one year later when he was 86. Near the end, he told my brothers and me that those 17 years were the best six months he ever spent.
To the wonderful doctors and nurses at Long Beach Veterans Hospital, he was a walking miracle. They kept a loving watch on him and just couldn’t understand how a body so riddled with cancer could continue to function.
My dad’s explanation had been simple. He informed them that he had been a medic in World War I. He had seen amputated arms and legs and noticed none of these limbs could think. So he decided he would tell his body how to behave. Once, during a family gathering, he stood up, and it was evident that he had felt a stabbing pain.
He looked down at his chest and shouted...Continue
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