Stroke Survivor Blog

Steve and I recently celebrated our 43rd wedding anniversary at the restaurant where we went on our first date. It brought back many memories of those early days when we were only teenagers madly in love with one another.

For over forty years Steve provided a good life for me and our four daughters. He never wanted me to work outside of the home, and believe me, I was happy to stay home and take care of our family.

When our daughters were older, I managed our home building business from our home office. It was feast or famine in the construction business. We almost lost everything in the 1980′s recession when interest rates were over 20% and Steve had no work for three years. It was during that time that I also had an unplanned pregnancy with our third daughter. We had previously gotten rid of all our baby stuff and had no insurance. It was a humbling experience to receive help from friends and family in the form of groceries, money, clothing and baby furniture. It was a stressful time for all of us, but somehow we got through it all without losing our house or business. Others weren’t so fortunate.

We know what it’s like to face hard times, and now it’s no different. It’s just a different set of circumstances. Stroke has tried to devastate our lives, but I will not let it. I put my faith in God who has given me the grace and strength to go through this trial. In all these things we are more than conquerors through Christ who loves us.

Our roles have changed in these latter years of our marriage, and our faith is being tried. Steve can no longer take care of me, and I am taking care of him instead. He is humbled by that predicament, and I might add that he doesn’t like it. But in our marriage vows we promised to love one another for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, til death do us part.