The First Time I Saw It That Way - Anna Teeples

I met Gary four years ago when he was in his first remission. Gary is a young sixty-something year old whose spry build gently glides through the streets when he runs. He fashions stylish European glasses and loves his vintage t-shirts that he pairs with canvas low top Chuck Taylor All-stars.

Ironically, Gary met his soon to be future wife when he was far away from a hospital. She is a doctor. They had both given up on love later in life. A chance meeting and some two years later, I was drafting up a ‘Save the Date’ for their small nuptial gathering.

Gary picked a quote from a poem to highlight a vignette from a painting for the card front. “We discover our true selves in love.” I liked the line. I liked the card. I cried at the wedding. They were a couple who touched my soul.

Gary’s cancer spread all over within four months of their wedding. There was nothing left for the local team to do. He had been down the road before and he was exhausted, doubt was festering.

And then I saw for the first time what love could do. His doctor wife surrounded him with vigor and energy to believe in health and healing. She found a drug trial in the upper Northeast corner of the States. She traveled with him once a week in a middle seat to walk into the hospital for one ten-minute shot and re-board a plane to the West Coast. They made this trip every week for six weeks and she looked into him with fight and determination. Cancer be gone. And so it was. Their new life could start.