I never knew he had this much patience.

I never knew he had this much love.

When one’s marriage is >10 years old, we tend to take things for granted. I know i sometimes do but i try my darnest not to.

When i had a very serious bout of food poisoning 2 weeks ago, the husband took care of me like he had never before and we weren’t even on a good term because i was unhappy for dunno-what-reason-already.

Without a word, he walked into the bathroom and patted my back gently when i vomited for the first time that night. Within 15 minutes, the vomiting got so bad that i propped my head over the stinky toilet bowl in between the few second intervals because i can’t even afford to rest proper on the bathroom floor itself. Whenever i was done, he would walk in from coaching the boys to clear the toilet bowl for me. Just when i thought the whole situation couldn’t get any worse, hmm, let’s just put it this way, the contaminated food decided to come out from the other end too. Whoa.. i tell you, for that 1 hour, i thought i might just die for real.

Right then, i knew some words had to be uttered even though I had to make MAMMOTH effort to do it.

Call ambulance.
(if you know me well enough, i am someone who refuses to see the doctor unless i absolutely, absolutely have to but most of the times, i still don’t. So, for me to utter these words, it really says something)

I said it not once, not twice but thrice because the husband didn’t do as i say to my astonishment — i found out why the next day. He didn’t show any reaction at all in fact (except for that calm face of his) but quietly, cleaning up the mess. And the fact that i didn’t ask why then probably makes you more curious eh? As dramatic as it might sound, i couldn’t summon enough energy to ask why and when i almost did, i passed out, twice.

Then, i was no longer in the bathroom but on the bed. I was too weak to be kneeling over doing all the barfing. Hubby placed a pail right next to the bed and whenever i was about to barf, he would rush over to hold it up for me with one hand and the other, my hair. When i was done, he would diligently clean it proper so that i’d get a fresh better smelling pail instead of a stinky one.

Knowing how important sleep is to the husband, i thought he might just abandon me when the clock struck 11pm, 1.5 hour past his bed time but he did not. Then, things slowed down and we managed to catch some sleep in between. However, every time i wanted to do a Merlion, he would spring up and rush to my side again and again and again…

No complains, no sighs.

I never knew he had this much patience.

I never knew he had this much love.

But now i do.