in sickness and in health

Billy has told me several times what his idea of love is. I find it to be one of the most beautiful stories that anyone has ever told me. I think that everyone should have the privilege of hearing it as well, so I'm going to write it here.

A little background- Billy's grandfather and father both are named William. His grandfather was a marine and I've never heard a bad thing about the man. Billy has never been able to tell me a story about his grandfather without tearing up. His grandfather was as close to him as I was to my grandmother, so I'm able to relate to him very closely regarding an incredible loss.

After having a heart attack, Billy's grandfather wound up in a coma in the hospital. His (Billy's) grandmother was by his side at the hospital and took care of him until the end. She shaved him when he was scruffy because he was always a very well-put-together man and shaved daily. She wanted the family (and anyone else who came to see him) to see him as he would want to be seen. She loved him so much that even in a coma state she made it her only priority to do whatever he would have done on his own. So when Billy and his family visited at the hospital to say their final good-byes, their final memory of their grandfather, father, uncle, etc. was of how he was any other day. They never saw him looking differently. Because of her love for him, Billy's grandmother set aside her heartbreak, in an effort to preserve his memory for everyone else.

I know that he has used that image to set the bar for his own life and love. I think about that story very often, and while I don't want to imagine myself in similar circumstances, I would hope that I would handle myself in such a truly dignified fashion. If that isn't love, I don't know what is.