Stories of Love and Loss
Hester Hill Schnipper, LICSW, OSW-C Program Manager, Oncology Social Work
MARCH 08, 2017
You have probably seen the incredibly beautiful and heart-breaking essay by Amy Krouse Rosenthal: You May Want to Marry my Husband. Written by a dying woman as a dating profile for her husband, it is actually a love letter to the love of her life. If you missed it, take out the Kleenex and read:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/03/style/modern-love-you-may-want-to-marry-my-husband.html?_r=0
After I finished crying, I showed it to my husband. After he finished crying, we agreed that we probably could never be so generous in a time of such grief. I remain in awe of her love.
As do others. This is a lovely collection of responses:
‘Live for the Moment’: Readers Share
Stories of Love and Loss
‘Enough Love for a Lifetime’
Six years ago, at 39, I lost my lover, husband, best friend, adventure
partner
and co-parent. Yet even in the depths of my grief, I assumed then that in
six years,
I would have found a new life and new love. Yet here I still am, alone,
because I
cannot find anyone who even comes close to my Dave. It may be that Jason
will
feel that way, too. And that is O.K. You’ve given him enough love for a
lifetime.
— Lexi Shear, Montpelier, Vt.
‘Time Is All I Ask for — Daily’
I have Stage 4 terminal breast cancer, and while my husband and I haven’t
had
the strength to have a conversation like this, I know it’s coming. I am
responding
well to maintenance chemo, so the end seems distant to us, but that is
foolish. We
are playing Russian roulette.
Time is all I ask for — daily. You are so brave, wise and witty, words that
people use to describe me. I’m not ready to do what you have done on these
pages.
You may have been a catalyst to get the conversion started sooner rather
than later.
Thank you for that.
— Sandra Avis, Michigan