Guest Post: Laura from Fairdale Diaries

Good morning, everyone. I have another awesome guest post for you today from the very kind Laura. I think her story is an important one and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did…

Hi lovelies! I'm Laura from Fairdale Diaries and I am so excited to be over here keeping Elizabeth's blog company today!

She has asked me to talk about an adventure I've had. She said it could be either physically an adventure or an emotional one. And since I've been in touch with my inner self lately... read on for an emotional adventure I took with my husband!

One of our adventures began on September 27, 2009. That was the first bridal show we went to and the day we told everyone we had finally set a date to get married (March 27, 2010). We were both working full time, I was in graduate school full time, and we planned a wedding plus had all of the holidays and birthdays to celebrate. In February, we signed the 6 month lease for our first apartment. It was the perfect one bedroom for us. Small but cute and plenty of space for us just starting out. We were so excited. Our wedding day was perfect. I couldn’t have wished for anything better. After the wedding and a short honeymoon, we settled in to our new place and enjoyed being married. We were excited to start the first year of our marriage and see what wonderful adventures married life would bring. Little did we know that the adventures wouldn’t be joyful but would bring us closer than we had ever been in the 7 years of dating we had…

On May 19th 2010, my papaw went into the hospital for a fall but was admitted because of possible pneumonia. My papaw’s lungs were already in bad shape with COPD and emphysema so they wanted to watch him for a few days. My family went and saw him every day while he was in the hospital. So the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday before, my mom went to the hospital Saturday morning while I was at work. I had been at work maybe an hour when husband called and told me to come outside real quick. As soon as I walked out the door, he was sitting in his car with the window down and said “Your papaw is on life support, go clock out and come on.” My mom had walked in to my papaw’s room that morning to sit and talk for awhile and keep him company, but when she turned the corner to his room, he was on a ventilator, unconscious and unresponsive.

I went and clocked out at work, jumped in the car with Josh and called my manager on the way to the hospital. Those next 2 months were a rollercoaster of emotion. Because I was the only one in my family to know anything about hospitals and procedures, that inadvertently made me in charge of listening to every doctor, nurse and specialist then relaying the message back to my mom in layman’s terms.

Source: etsy.com via Kyle on Pinterest

 

So how does any of this have to do with a journey, my husband & I have been on? I’m getting there…

After a month in the hospital in our town, after getting a tracheotomy and finally progressing to be a little better, the hospital recommended my papaw be transferred to a specialty hospital about 30 minutes away to the next town too be weaned off the vent. Here’s where my wonderful husband steps in and saves the day. He works for a small family owned company (not his family) but they think of him and I as a part of their family so, they gave him off as much time as he needed (I was still working 40 hours a week at this point, taking as much time off as I could), so he ended up leaving his job for about a month to spend every waking hour and every night with my papaw. My mom and I hated to leave my papaw up there by himself and we always felt better knowing Josh was there in case something happened.

Josh and I had only been married 2 months, our lease finally ended and the doctors were hopeful that my papaw would be coming home to live but would need help, so without hesitation, Josh helped me pack our things, rent a U-haul and we moved to my papaw’s house back in the town I grew up in. He never once complained of being tired or having to do too much for my family. My papaw thought of Josh like a grandson and loved having him around.

In my papaw’s final days, he was getting worse, not better, and we all knew it. He never was able wean off the ventilator so we had some tough decisions to make. I, being the power of attorney and durable power of attorney for his medical decisions, had to sign off on everything during this trying time from tests to procedures to finally making end of life decisions. I won’t go into that but I will say that this journey of dealing with the illness and loss of my papaw was one that I wouldn’t wish on my greatest enemy but I also wouldn’t want to have been through it with anyone else but my husband. He and I grew closer, he saw me cry more during those two months than the 7 years before that, and I saw what great character he has, and how he will step up in times of trials and hardships to do what’s best for not only himself but family, including mine. He showed me how caring and sensitive he could  be while still maintaining composure. He allowed me to break down at night and let out all of the feelings I held inside during the day when I had to be strong and work or talk with doctors or explain things to my mom.

I am thankful for that adventure with my husband in our first year of marriage because a lot of people wouldn’t have made it through, that I am sure of. But the fact that we did and we learned from it and allowed it to strengthen our love and marriage and bond we have with each other instead of breaking us down and distancing ourselves makes it one of the bitter sweet experiences of our first year as husband and wife that help us to grow and mature, even during a time of great loss.

Hope you enjoyed and hopefully, if you ever have a significant other, you can have adventures that are joyous and some that test and strengthen your relationship.

Thanks so much to Laura for sharing such a powerful and personal story with us! These are the kinds of love stories that make me so thankful for blogs where such amazing people can share their hearts. Now you need to go HERE and check out her lovely blog!

love, elizabeth

PS: Tune in tomorrow for my very first link-up…Clue: it involves SIGNS.