A Love Story

This is a love story, told to me by a deceased man. I’ll try my best to relay every meaningful detail, as I was brought to tears more than once as I listened to him tell his love story from the great beyond. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. I’m just kidding …

His name was Gary. He was a lawyer. He lived his life closed off to love, only guessing at what love felt like. He was a handsome man who was used to a certain amount of privilege. He shared his life with me via images, feelings, and words. I knew what it felt like to have people treat you with respect because you had a lot of money, because you wore a certain brand, and because you were somebody “worth” catering to.

The first image he showed me shocked me so badly I jumped in my skin. It was the image of a man covered in severe burns. I couldn’t help but think of the character Deadpool, over and over again as I listened.

Gary showed me the car crash he’d been in. The car (a very nice one, of course) had burst into flames and he’d nearly lost his life. When he woke up in the hospital he knew his life was different, and over as he had once known it. He was blunt about what type of man he had been, a womanizer. His biggest concern wasn’t not going back to work as a lawyer, it was who was going to want to sleep with him now that his appearance was scarred.

When he was in the hospital, he rejoiced in the fact that his new face scared the children. He’d never much cared for them. Until he met a little boy in the Cancer unit. The little boy was the first to look at him, not away like so many others before. The boy asked him, “what’s wrong with you?” Noticing the sickly appearance of the small child, he returned the question. They became fast friends.

What bothered Gary about his appearance wasn’t the way people looked at him. It was the way they couldn’t bear to look at him.

One night Gary went out to a bar. As he was walking into the bar he saw a woman drop something by her open car door. He picked it up and handed it to her. He started walking into the bar again, and the woman chased him and stood in front of him. She thanked him, and gave him a long hard stare. Without a beat, a lot like the child he’d been friends with in the hospital, she asked him bluntly, “what happened to you?”

They spent the night talking and getting to know one another. He thought he’d just been gifted with an amazing night out, and the meeting of a kind person. She made it very clear that night, that she was going to remain in his life, and they quickly became a couple.

He had missed one small fact about this woman, because he had been so focused on her inner beauty. she was a gorgeous brunette. They married, and at their wedding everybody told them what a beautiful couple they were. He knew they meant it.

The first image I saw was the image of a man who had been badly burned. This seemed like the point at which his story ended, until he told me the rest. He died after his wife did, an elderly man, alone in his bed.

He asked me to write his story, so here it is.

I think the overall message is that when life seems like it might be over, maybe it’s just about to begin.

Thank you for sharing your story with us, Gary.

The journey is just that, one small step at a time. And attitude, well, it’s the difference between enjoying scaring small children with your appearance, and hating what you look like with your new scars.

And it’s the difference between what beautiful people truly look like, and physical appearance.

Namaste’