But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.  He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him.

Luke 10:33-34

 

I’m getting more and more enthusiastic about telling this story. As I’ve been reflecting with my husband, I realize how wrong I would be to overlook the colourful past I had before Living Room and before the pain.

Are you remembering the good parts of your life? Or have you, like me, been focusing too much on the pain?

In Part 3 of my story, I mentioned Wes, a man who came into my life at a most difficult time. He was truly special, sticking with me while I spent six months at Riverview Hospital. How amazing that was!

After a while in hospital I started getting weekend passes. On Friday nights I took the bus home to my parents’ house and Wes would spend Saturdays and Sundays with me.

Wes loved his Triumph sports car, so we spent a lot of time going for drives. There were a couple of occasions—not many—when he took me where we would be around other people. In those days the medications were not like today’s and patients were frequently over-medicated. As a result, mental patients often looked like mental patients. I did too. But Wes did not show any shame about being seen with me.

Wes spent a lot of time in our family’s home on those weekends. And on Sunday nights he joined with us to have the chicken dinner my mother prepared without fail. After dinner came the drive back to the hospital. Always a bit late arriving back, we had to bang hard on the heavy metal door to be let back in. My heart sank to know I had another week in this dreary place.

Two or three years after my time in hospital, I was doing much better. One day, we were driving on Hastings Street in Vancouver when I mentioned to Wes, “So, when do you think we should get married?” A proposal wasn’t needed. We both knew that we were meant to spend our life together. We started planning.

May 3, 1969 was our wedding day. It wasn’t an expensive affair. We preferred to save our money for something more important—the honeymoon.

The day after the wedding, we flew to London to begin a five week road trip  through Europe, seeing as much as we could in that time. It was the first of many trips we would take—to many different places.

I can’t tell you enough about what my relationship with Wes did for me. The love and the security. How might my life have turned out if I didn’t have him at my side for those fifty-one years of marriage we now have behind us? I can’t imagine it.

God has been good to me! He gave me a wonderful husband.

This has been part 4 of my series My Journey from Patient to Leader. Read part 5: Why was I not ashamed?