My husband Terry takes good care of me. I got my first chance to appreciate how precious that was a year into our marriage when I was on crutches after breaking a bone in my foot. I could I relax. I didn’t have to get back on my feet until I was ready. I was full of gratitude to have found someone with whom I could share not just the fun times, but the down times as well. Finding him made the challenges I faced when daring to date again worthwhile.
When I was sick, my first husband urged me to “Get up and take a bath or something,” and my second husband regarded illness as weakness, so this was a big change.
While I was still on crutches, we went ahead with a scheduled dinner party. All I had to do was arrive at the table, put my foot up, and eat. The dinner was handled differently than it would have been if I had been in charge, but I saw that the sky was not going to fall if I wasn’t personally holding it up…a fruitful lesson in any marriage.
Terry remarked, “I never thought you’d take so well to being waited on hand and foot,” but after chasing away old habits, I took to it very well. I had cozy feelings I had not had since my childhood.
It was a wonderful kind of women’s liberation.