This month I want to share with you how ALS has impacted my relationship with my husband and others and discuss this in the context of love and romance.

As ALS advances from annoying physical impairments to being unable to even raise a finger on my hand or swallow a glass of water and I am now on Hospice, my relationships with my husband, my son, my siblings and others have grown stronger. As I approach my final days, I am deeply grateful for the way my husband and others have stepped up to care for me.

However, the most IMPORTANT point I wish to make is that no matter how much ALS has disrupted and changed what would have been one kind of romance, it has allowed me and my loved ones to take off our social masks and merge our spiritual paths in ways that I never could have anticipated. With the dropping of our social masks, we have created another type of “romance” that is far deeper and purer. This is the kind of love that I think of as agape. While agape love is considered the highest form of love, characterized by selflessness, sacrifice, and unconditional care for others, it is also a shame that agape becomes more easily manifest within the context of terminal illness rather than something we access in everyday life.

In these final days of my life, I realize that agape has walked with me throughout my life every day as one who believes in God. So, I ask you to reach out to others in love on Valentine’s Day and every day with agape love lighting the way on your life’s path.