Heart

(tear-jerker warning i’m sorry)

Added 2023-01-19 16:07:33 +0000 UTC

My Great Uncle has been taking care of his wife for months while she dies slowly from Cancer. It’s been an act of devotion, he stays at the hospice night and day, he wanted every last minute with her.

In the last few weeks she hasn’t been able to get out of bed. She was mostly unresponsive, wasting away, the drugs in her IV making her comfortable (thank goodness). He’d been sitting vigil, she was physically present, but for weeks his wife wasn’t there with him in the room anymore. He waited.

Yesterday he was reading beside her bed, the steady beep of the machines held their usual rhythm. Suddenly she opened her eyes, sat up in one smooth motion, and got out of bed. She walked over to him, her IV stand tugging behind, and sat next to him on the hospice-room couch. She leaned against him, put her warm cheek against his cheek, and rested like that for a moment. She closed her eyes, breathing slowly. He put his arm around her, unsure of what was happening, overwhelmed with the joy of feeling her so close, love radiating between their faces.

And just as swiftly as it started, she stood up again, climbed back into her hospital bed, rested her head on her pillow, and died.

The nurse came in, turned off the alarms on the screaming machines, checked her vitals and said gently, “She’s gone.”

Her last act was a gift, a liminal moment. They didn’t say a word between them, he was taken aback, or maybe he could feel the magic and didn’t want to break it. But this is the most romantic story I’ve ever heard about love.