Dark Valleys and Sunlit Mountains

Book excerpt: Dark Valleys and Sunlit Mountains chronicles one couple's journey through numerous and diverse medical challenges encountered during the latter portion of a 31-year marriage. They took great pleasure in each other's company, extended families, friends; off-shore and domestic travel, summer cabin and boating. The marriage was good for both. Significant changes to her husband's diet following their 1982 marriage, improved his overall health status considerably. His decades-long history of petit mal seizures was well monitored and treated with prescription drugs, adjusted appropriately by board certified neurologists. Neither anticipated the events beginning with a seizure incident in May 2007, continuing into 2013. Life became one supreme medical challenge after another, each different; each with its own specific dark valley. Periods with minimal hope, no diagnosis, medical miracles or answers found. He recuperated from each (until 2013), slowly regaining strength, mobility and well-being. Each sunlit mountain recovery experience was savored. Plans commenced for more travel. A 2009 successful lliostomy procedure mitigated Gl bleeds, but left Ted unwilling to live, despite medical assurances. No carcinoma was present, but refusing to eat, he came home to die; the darkest valley of all. With no medical training, she became the sole 24(1 critical patient caregiver. Pray without ceasing, with thanksgiving, became the watchword. These trials served to greatly strengthen the wife's life-long trust and faith in God's promises. She discovered a depth of faith heretofore unknown, experienced or even thought possible; learning to trust on an entirely new plane, finding God's comforting peace amidst the depths of human despair. Promises of God's unfailing presence in our lives, never to leave or forsake us; to provide our every need sustained her. In late April 2010 Ted quietly declared for the first time, "It just came to me, looking out the window. I do believe in God."