I wasn’t well for these past few days and I was down with flu and slight fever.

I’m grateful to my wife for skipping her dinner even though she was really very hungry and had not had her lunch.

The wait at the clinic was an hour and you know that when a person is ill, an hour long wait can feel like 5 hours or more.

While making my way to the clinic and feeling her warm hand in mine, I remembered our wedding vows very vividly.

It goes something like this:

“Male:
I _____, take you ______, to be my wedded wife. To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness or in health, to love and to cherish ’till death do us part. And hereto I pledge you my faithfulness.

Female:
I, _____, take you ______, to be my wedded husband. To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, ’till death do us part. And hereto I pledge you my faithfulness.”

Sometimes I wonder how many of us do really remember the wedding vows we took, except to bluntly just follow them word by word.

Being sick is no joking matter and I really felt very grouchy and drowsy. It was really pleasant and heart-warming when the hands of your love one support you literally and figuratively all the way to the clinic.

Have you ever been so unwell that you just dreaded going to the nearby clinic?

However, there is no one to accompany you and how much you wish that a caring person will just appear and accompany you.

In this context, I’m only referring to common illness like cough and flu.

What about more serious and long term illness like cancer?

I remember my dad had to battle this form of illness for 3 years or more and my mother really sticked to him through thick and thin.

I knew it was not easy, both mentally and emotionally.

No one would like to see a person we love get ill and slowly reduce to just bones and skin.

Would you?

It is really through such test of times that we can know how much a couple love each other.

The wedding vow is easy to recite but for one to follow through, it takes more than just love for each other to do that.