50 First Dates

Have you ever seen the movie, 50 First Dates?  It is about a man who meets and falls in love with a girl.  They hit it off and he thinks that he has found the girl of his dreams, until he discovers she has short-term memory loss and forgets him the very next day.  I used to think, how could anyone ever live this way.  It must be so difficult for this person to love someone who cannot remember much from day to day.  You would have to have such patience, and repeat, repeat, repeat.  It’s just a movie isn’t it?

Welcome to my world.  The earlier parts of my husband’s stay on the rehab unit had an uncanny resemblance to this movie.  With the exception of being set in Hawaii.  (Don’t I wish!)  When anyone would ask how he was doing, I would refer to this movie.  Did you ever see 50 First Dates? 

Now this movie is a bit of a stretch.  There are much more serious movies out there dealing with the same issues.  But this movie had a likeable cuteness to it.  Of course, it’s an Adam Sandler movie, so it had lots of silliness, but it was the patience and caring that really got to me.  How this man could devote so much time to this girl.  Such perseverance and he knew she would forget it all the next day. For a moment, my life paralleled this movie.  The only difference is my husband did get better.  He eventually did remember me and our family.  But I now could see what I could not fathom when I first saw this movie.  Somehow you become blind to outward appearances, speech problems, memory loss and just see what’s inside.  It’s not a job or a chore. You don’t do it for fame or glory. You remember the good person they are and it makes you want to help them.   It’s all about love, pure and simple.