“I don’t think I love you sacrificially enough, yet.”
I commented to Gerard on our way home from the Iowa Games. His team had taken third place and for a group of people who hadn’t ever played together until that day, I was so impressed by this feat. They had lost to a team made up of some of Gerard’s former students to whom he had taught the basics of the game and I was so impressed by Gerard’s humility and geniune congratulatory nature for his “Mini Me’s”, as I call them. I was also incredibly impressed by everyone’s ability to play up to 7 games that day in 100+ degree heat with a stifling percentage of humidity. I’m pretty sure we could’ve filled a small man-made lake with the gallons of fluid that were ingested in the attempts to stay hydrated and alive that day.
But I wasn’t impressed by my self-described lack of sacrificial love towards my husband.
Yes, I was on the sidelines-but only for 2.5 of those 7 games. Yes, it was our 5th anniversary and I had “let” him play, but why withhold support to play his favorite sport? That’s at least one lesson I’ve learned in our 5 years together. But, I still wasn’t pleased with the way I love my husband on a daily basis, and how downright selfish & lazy I still am in general.
Little did I know, I was about to eat my words.
Less than 24 hours later, Gerard’s body felt the full force of the heat indexes from the previous day and his skin was radiating heat that you could feel sitting a foot from him. His teeth chattered as we covered him in blankets on the couch and anticipated waiting out the achiness. He was, as our family says, “Down for the count.” And what was the only thing I had to do? Keep his water glass full.
Sometimes you imagine nursing a dying man back to health in the midst of WWII, or dramatically pulling him from a car wreckage to safety. But, in the Krupke household, we just keep each other’s water glasses full.
(No drama here!)
We made the drive home from New Providence after
Dad’s 80th Birthday Surprise Bash
and Gerard continued on the couch for not just that evening, but for two more consecutive days. This was setting up to be a world record. Generally, when Gerard gets a fever, he naps for an hour and it’s gone. But, Tuesday. Wednesday. Battled through a few lessons on Thursday. Finally, things concerned us enough to consult a physician in person and they asked for a few samples. We got the analysis back this week along with a call from the CDC about the food-borne-bacteria that Gerard had ingested somewhere along the way that anniversary weekend. Guess it wasn’t heat exhaustion after all!??
They said that normally healthy people get over it on their own without the assistance of doctors or medicine. I don’t want to know what non-healthy people have to suffer through. I’ll just praise the good Lord that my husband has an immune system as strong as a 1-ton horse and call it good. And what did I have to do throughout it all as an act of sacrificial love? Just keep his water glass full.
