Love and Faithfulness

I always thought I had a thick skull, but after seeing the dent in the corner of the wall in our kitchen, now I’m sure of it.

Mark is always telling me to slow down but I tend to walk like my dad, who always had a little skip in his step. When I fell on Thursday, I had stopped in the kitchen to give Mark a kiss and then turned toward the bathroom. The next thing I remember is Mark frantically calling Kelly for help. She arrived and brought with her a calm that only a nurse can possess and together they developed a plan as I bled all over myself and the kitchen floor. After a minute or so Kelly sent Mark to our storage unit in the basement to grab the wheelchair we had borrowed from Colleen Vander Wier a week earlier and the three of us headed to the hospital.

I wasn’t in much pain, but I was hurt that I screwed up what was supposed to be a fun-filled weekend. Chad was flying in from Texas on Thursday and on Friday we were supposed to head to Charlevoix for Meagan Sesselmann’s wedding. Instead, I laid in the emergency room pissed off at myself for not being more careful.

Chad did arrive and we had a wonderful Friday at home together as a family. I couldn’t leave the house because I looked like a peacock with all of the silly bandages rapped around my head and neck. I was feeling better by Friday night so we decided to head up north to the wedding on Saturday morning. It took Mark an hour to wash the blood and skin out of my hair. After about four gentle hair washings, Mark thought he was going to faint in the shower. Thank goodness we have two seats in our shower because we both had to sit to keep our composure.

Kelly came over and did her magic with my hair as Mark rested in bed with his feet elevated, still a little queasy from washing around my staples in the shower. It took Kelly another hour to comb through the mess on my head. Three hours later we were in the car driving to Charlevoix to see Meagan get married. Mark was still not sure we should make the trip but once again my persistence won. The Sesselmanns are very special to us and it was important to me to celebrate this amazing day with their family.

Meagan and Eric’s wedding was beautiful and worth the trip. At the ceremony Father Don Weber talked about how he would like to replace the word “love” with “faithfulness” in the wedding vows. As I listened to Father talk intimately to Meagan and Eric about faithfulness, I thought to myself how faithful Mark is to me and how lucky I am to have him.

I took a nap between the wedding and the reception, which provided me with enough energy to enjoy a beautiful evening with my family and friends.

This beautiful union between a new couple ended with everybody surrounding Meagan and Eric on the dance floor as one of my favorite songs, “Piano Man,” played through the speakers. We all sang hand in hand, loving each other and loving the night.