LOVE AND HANDICAP PARKING SPACES...

Milton, here:

Kristy's illness has changed our lives. She needs me more than ever. An energetic and creative lady is now weak and is looking to me for strength.

I have wiped hot tears as I have comforted and soothed her during intense bouts of "break out" pain and all the recent issues. Thankfully, those subsided and we are working through other effects of this cancer. She has had some good days recently, and we are believing for better days are ahead.

She taught me the honor, the duty, the patience of faithful, loving care.

I saw it in her attention to her elderly father, whom she served as his care provider the last years of his life. Kristy's mother, Grace, died several years back and Kristy became his caregiver. During that time, Dad Roberts lost a leg and needed so much love and care which Kristy provided. She went far, far, beyond the call of duty. The list of care provision by Kristy for her father is too long to enumerate. But anyone who has shared in the role knows it well.

It was during Kristy's care of her father that I learned about the true value and need for handicap parking spaces and love's faithfulness. Of course being 91 and in a wheelchair meant that her father needed handicap parking wherever she took him. She would pull the wheelchair out of the trunk and help slide him into the chair, and then take him to see doctors or whatever was needed.

What love. What duty. What honor.

Often when I pass a handicap space, I think of her duty and her love for her father. I never dreamed I would fill similar shoes in her care--at least not at this stage in our lives. She doesn't need a wheel chair but there are many other limitations.

I have been impacted by her example of love's duty and honor. It changed me long before now.

True, romantic love reaches far beyond fleeting moments of tingly affection. It reaches out in sickness ....and in health. We have enjoyed the health together. We now face the sickness together.

She showed me how to do it.

How Is Kristy?

She is feeling imprisoned by her weakness and limitations and longs for the day she will be back to normal writing and energized.

Today was a good day, but she is struggling to regain strength. She is a redheaded fighter and has so many dreams and desires.

We are praying, believing, expecting.

Thanks for your prayers for her and for us.