Meet the Wife!

I did promise at the start of this record some insight into my wife, and while I am going to do that here what you need to know is that no words can ever express what I feel for her. But this will hopefully give you some idea..so here goes.

Jenny and I "met" for the first time back in 2001 in an internet chat room. I had been married previously for some 20 years, the last several of those unhappily, as, with many things of a long term nature like this we had simply grown apart. Enough said!

I was instantly drawn to this woman, just by what she said, as I hadnt seen her face, had no idea what she looked like or what her situation was but within the space of a few hours we seemed to have so much in common with each other.

So who is this mysterious internet head turner?

Quite simply she is my soulmate. We agree on pretty much everything, what we don't like works for both, as does what we like. we often know what the other would say in response to a question. We are genuinely happy in each other's company, and prefer to be with each other than not. We rarely argue, preferring to talk things out and pretty much always find a compromise that suits us both.

So this meeting on the internet inevitably led to an arrangement to meet in real life for the first time. I remember sitting in my car waiting for her to arrive at that meeting, and when she did, I watched her in the rear view mirror as she got out of her car and I said to myself "YYYYesssssss!". Whatever, our future was sealed at that moment.

Early 2002 saw us move in together, and that wonderful time of discovery, learning, surprises that come with a new partner. It just got better every day. I think I can honestly say that I had fallen in love for the first, and only time in my life. The next 3 years were the most amazing of my life and promised so much more: we planned stuff, sat up late into the night chatting, making love, uncovering little treasures about each other that we didn't know were there but which made us even more in love (and lust!) every day.

Every relationship has tough moments, and ours came at 9.30am on 25th November 2005 when Jenny had a massive stroke. Our whole world was changed in that fateful 5 seconds. No warning, no prior indication, no time to prepare, just "bang", take that !

I am not going to bore you with all the details but if you want to know more i recorded every day of that in a blog too. You can find it at The Road To Recovery

The result of all that was that Jenny is now disabled, left sided paralysis, and has spent 6 years being frustrated at being unable to do the simplest of things. however, what we are, is a team, and our strength came from the love and understanding, the care and belief that we can overcome pretty much any obstacle. This we have done, and it's that prior knowledge, seeing Jenny overcome the problems that were thrown at her every day by the stroke for the last six years that has made me completely confident in our (yes it's a joint exercise, hence the "our"; it was before, and it will be now) ability to overcome this cancer thing.

We are already finding solutions to the pain and mobility issues I have encountered, we share more intimacy in those moments than any other couple I know.

So what about the soppy bit you ask? Yes we married not long after she came out of hospital after the stroke, on 14th February 2006, and I love her more today than I did yesterday, but not as much as I will tomorrow. She is my rock, and I hope I am hers. Very few people are lucky enough to meet their one true love, that special person that fate decrees is the one who makes you complete, whole, and fulfilled. I am one of those, thanks to her.