Day 10 of the 30 Day COVID-19 Dinner Challenge: Lucky in Love

June 20, 2020 ~ On this day forty years ago Tom and I married. Quick to fall in love. Quick to know we were lifers. We never looked back. ALS doesn’t scare us as much as if we had not found one other. For all of the last forty years and all of the days, months, years we have left together, will be the best days of our lives.

Tom made the anniversary dinner. He loves to pitch in, to contribute. He also loves a homemade roasted chicken, asparagus cooked up crunchy and brown rice with gravy. It was a perfect meal.

Diminishing abilities from ALS requires assistance for Tom to pull this off. Kate stayed with him the whole time. Filling in when he couldn’t lift a plate or handle another task. The photo at the top of the blog is Kate holding the glass roasting pan while Tom checks to see if the bird is cooked through. She is seamless in her ability to help him. It never appears that she is doing the heavy lifting yet she is, the entire time and still he was exhausted. She helped him make a memorable meal for our one and only 4oth anniversary.

We did not count calories, at all. An anniversary dinner should be enjoyed without thinking about such things. I can’t tell you how they made it so there is no recipe to share today. I only watched bits and pieces, just long enough to catch some photos and videos. It was delicious and not repeatable because it was a once in a lifetime moment. The dessert was fantastic. We had a make your own ice cream bar.

ALS has taught us to love as many moments together as is possible. We highly recommend embracing the life you have. You won’t get another one.

The lifespan for people with ALS is known to be two to five years from diagnosis. Tom has exceeded all expectations. On June 21, ten years ago, he was diagnosed with ALS. A few days after learning the diagnosis we were told it was a service-connected condition. Veterans are more than twice as likely to get ALS than non-veterans. Despite the diagnosis of a terminal disease Tom and I both know we have been lucky in love and that counts for everything. Love wins.

Until the next time!