What keeps me going, and it is the hardest task I have ever had, is knowing that true love is rare. Deb and I met in 1984 when she was 28 and I was 33. We married a few months later. We had both had prior marriages and were blending families of 2 kids each. We knew it would be rough but we made a wonderful life for our kids and each other. She was diagnosed in 2004, in a wheelchair since 2010, and is now approaching what would be considered end stage MS. Her disease has never had relapses. She has what is clinically called “primary progressive” MS. My own physical ability to care for her is getting strained and I worry if I can finish. However, the emotional strain is by far more difficult. The key to going forward is not looking too far in the future. That is overwhelming.

I am proud that I have been a good and faithful husband and am honoring that vow “in sickness and in health”. I have had friends and family who have been supportive and encouraging. When I was young I knew a woman with MS whose husband had left her. She was a wonderful woman and I felt like that guy was such a creep. Looking back now what I feel about him is that he may have missed the best years of their marriage. Sure the sex would have gone but he would have had moments of love and intimacy that I can now say are some of the most beautiful moments in my life.

Jerry Smith