For every Love there is a Heart

"For every beauty there is an eye somewhere to see it. For every truth there is an ear somewhere to hear it. For every love there is a heart somewhere to receive it."

 

When Stroke struck her the second time, not even her children understood the magnitude of his devastation.  Yet somehow she survived, and the loss of control over her body distressed her less than her loss of power to speak.  She would smile, as she always did, as relatives and visitors fussed over her, patient in her serenity, her eyes curved into little crescents saying, "Thank you for coming." 

Yet she was a prisoner in her body.  So many words thrown unceremoniously and without trial behind the bars that held her brain, and power of communication.  She understood every word they said, yet for her to produce a single "Yes" drained her of energy. 

Only he understood.  He who never spoke much, he whose smile not many witnessed, he who thought words were a waste of time, he who was strong, and silent. 

He who, through the years, listened, and was quite content to let his wife speak, now bent with age, callused through the years, his hawk-like eyes mellowed - but not quite, his gait slow, stooping.  

And he spoke.  He spoke at length, to her, all through her uncomfortable, sometimes painful, physiotherapy, he spoke to her.  Words she always knew were there now flowed, and she listened.  

He also spoke for her.  When no one else could understand her frustrated patience, nor decipher her arthritic, jerky sign language, he read her face and understood what she wanted to say, and she would sit back, relieved, watching him translate, at the nurse who would hurry to bring her the things she wanted.  

They say that you can't touch love, but I know she felt it, his age-worn fingers around hers, their wrinkles growing through the years to complement each others'.

 

They say you can't see love, yet it was the only thing that filled my eyes when I see them together. 

 

They say love can't be heard, but he showed me how love can show you what to hear. 

And I believe he hears it.