Love Is All We Need
Once upon a time, when I was only a few weeks into my first job in long-term care (dietary service), I was walking through memory care early one morning to get to the main kitchen. I noticed a man standing in his pajamas outside his apartment door. He had just woken up and looked worried. He began to shout for his wife who was nowhere to be found because she stayed in her apartment on the other side of the campus.
This was our first encounter. I stopped what I was doing and approached him to offer some support. I was so stunned by how confused, sad, angry and scared he was because he could not find his wife, and how his desire to be with her was so strong. He was completely consumed by his feelings for his wife and his need to be with her.
We went back into his apartment to sit down together. Many pictures of his family and life were all over the room, and I pointed to a smaller picture of his wife and him to say, "what a good looking couple." He turned to look and then grabbed the picture and looked deeply into the frame, and his distressed face quickly turned to a big warm smile. This was the kind of smile that is so big your eyes disappear.
We sat together for about twenty minutes and he hugged the picture close to his chest, looking down to gaze every few minutes, telling me numerous times who she was, where they were in the picture and what they were doing, and saying, "gosh I really love her." His smile never stopped.
Then, suddenly, there was a knock at the door. It was his wife who was ready to join him for breakfast and begin their day together.
In a matter of 25 minutes, I witnessed a person go from complete distress to complete comfort and satisfaction, and all he needed was love. The love he knew. The love he remembered. The same love that built a lifetime together as a couple for nearly 70 years.
Love Always Wins, and it truly is all we need.
