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November 1, 2008

tell him

I Love My Wife!!!
He wrote this message in the writing test. I gave him the full score, which I should have not done because in a regular English sentence capital letters are not used after the first word. I gave him the full score becaus
e he is German and because he loves his wife so much that I believe his writing rightfully expressed his feeling.
Mr. AR is going home today. Oh, I miss my wife. He had been in the hospital for only a week after his stroke, which is the shortest inpatient stay I have ever seen among my patients.

A week ago, I worked with Mr. HN who loves carving small pieces of wood into woman figures with a Swiss knife. He showed me his art work at the end of the study. He insisted I see them. His wife brought a bag of probably 15 pieces of figures for him. Because of his stroke, he couldn't carve wood for weeks but he missed his art.
He had shown the wood figures to all the hospital staffs he liked. I was a bit flattered and then felt a bit awkward as seeing his women in the bag. Not because all of them were naked. It was because they were all in a posture of showing their private or of raising their arms for being bound together.
I like to give my art to women. They can hang it at the doorway or in the car for reminding their men of not cheating.

I don't quite get it, but for the sake of being polite and continuing the conversation, I asked about his encounter with his wife. He had told me that he traveled to many European countries when he was young. I had learned that his wife is Italian.
Oh, I met her across street. Just right outside my apartment. Yes, in the States. In New Jersey! I spotted her and asked her out and later asked her to marry me.


Two weeks ago, Mr. JC finished a two-week study as the first pilot for that particular study. He was, like the two gentlemen mentioned above, very talkative. Being talkative might be induced by my self-introduction as a neuropsychologist, and patients thought I was the psychologist commonly protraited on TV. All I do is listen. I don't analyze because I am not that kind of psychologist.
Anyway, Mr. JC frequently told me how wonderful his wife was and how grateful he was for having his wife with him and how much he loves his wife. Sometimes, he got so emotional that tears came to his eyes and he apologized.

He had not wanted to go to hospital right after his stroke because he didn't believe he had anything wrong. Several hours later, his wife insisted and called the ambulance. Mr. JC was mad at his wife. I told you I am fine! I don't need to see a doctor. Now he felt he was blessed that his wife had forced him to be treated.

So far I have not met a female patient enthusiastically telling me how much she loves her husband. She usually told me how great the god was. She usually mentioned about her children. Why is the husband or the male life partner so not loveable?

At such advanced ages as most stroke survivors are, women express less affection toward their partners than men. Why is that? Because I am a stranger, and women prefer not to openly express their love in front of me? Because men were usually not the care giver in the house, and women seldomly felt being taken care of by their husband?

Kerline met a male patient who wanted to recover as soon as possible because he wanted to go home to take care of his wife. He is 92. His wife is 91.

Being a care giver, men seem to express their love more explicitly than women. Well... I know I should not come to this conclusion from a single case. But if I were a social psychologist, it might have been appropriate to make this argument.

Oh, women, tell your man that you love him. It is not a bad romantic movie if it happens in real life. It is just very touching and sometime life-changing.





I love my superstar.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Tell him"?? More times I just want to SLAP him!!

Anonymous said...

But seriously, I feel that more men are "dependent", rather than "loving" of their wives. From what I see in many cases (my own included), many men are clueless without their wives (extension of their own mother), that they can not function at all once the wives are removed from their daily routine - even for a very short period of time. This is especially so in a more "traditional" marriage, or that of these elder couples.
Steve behaves very similarly; sometimes I wonder if his "love" really came from the passion, or the spoiled nature his mother had created for him - hence the urge to slap...
But then again, at such age of the men you've mentioned, love may very well be a sustenance, or simply love.
Praise the men who loves their wives.

pei said...

Why are you with him?
Leave Atlanta! It's a red State!
Why can Steve keep you?

I believe those women depend on their husbands too. If the men (of the elder generation) depend on their women like children need their moms, those women would attach to their men like moms can't let go of their kids.
This is how I feel about my grandma. If she could ever verbally express her love, ...... hm...... no I don't think so. I do think she will get so old and so lonely once my grandpa is gone because there's no one for her to take care of. They function more like a team, rather than a couple of lovers.
I seriously wish I will not become like them. I want a man who loves me like he is in love with me until the end of his time. I want myself in love with my man even when I am too old to keep my babyfat. (I also seriously wish that fat could fade one day).
I wish my wishes will come true.

I wish you are in love with Steve and tell him.

Anonymous said...

Well, the part about your babyfat... err... hm.

I do love Steve, and I do tell him. However, I am somewhat in between the generation of you grandma (who's closer to my parent's age) and you (who's quite a few years younger than me). I struggle to define "love" apart from "dependence". There are times I feel more in love, and there are times I feel more in duty. Struggle, struggle.

But yes, I do love him. Sometimes.