The talk show host announced that he would be taking phone calls from people who would like to share their fondest, most tender moments.For me it was Valentine’s Day and I was immediately back in bed.

    I had been in bed for over four months the result of a tragic accident while on a missionary trip to Zimbabwe, Africa.The car that I was a passenger in lost it’s brakes going down a hill and we crashed into a grove of trees doing about 70 miles an hour. Delayed medical treatment put me into a coma for 29 days, where I almost died. While in that coma, I had the most horrible nightmares which required that I be constantly restrained and sedated. At the end of this nightmarish ordeal I gradually floated in and out of consciousness, and she was there.

    Linda and I had been married for almost 25 years when I went to Africa. I had expected to remain just long enough to install a sound system in one of our churches, so I traveled alone. I had met some wonderful people on my trip but the first one I remember seeing, emerging from the coma, was the sight of my wife.

    The weeks that followed were terrible for me and horrendous for Linda. I was in unrelenting pain, made worse by the uncertainty of what was going to happen to me. I questioned God, how He could let this happen to me and I took out my pain and frustration on Linda. I lost count of the times when I would cry out and ask, Mama, why is this happening to me? Why has God abandoned me? She usually just cradled me in her arms and rocked me and cried with me until I fell into an exhausted sleep. And then she went back to the apartment that she shared with 7 others.

    Two months after the accident I was finally able to make the arduous 42 hour trip back home to Phoenix. My dream was to go to my own home, to sleep in my own bed with my own family all around me. The reality was to greet my church and children at the airport and immediately be taken to another hospital. Two days later I was transferred to yet another hospital because of the seriousness of my condition. Linda was always at my side.

    Three surgeries later I was finally released to a hospital bed in our family room where she fed and bathed me, watched and waited on me, cared and prayed for me. I did not accept this enforced inactivity very well and she was there for my short temper and pent-up frustration as well.

    Our pastor has since counseled us (read that “ME”) and told me how much worse it is for the loved ones of patients. They feel so helpless to affect a change in the physical condition of the patient and yet, they are the ones who often bear the brunt of the questions, the anger and the irritation.

    When a tragic accident takes place or a serious illness occurs, there is mental as well as physical damage. Usually, as a patient recovers, they go from a self-centered perspective to becoming aware of those around them, and it was there again that I found Linda.

    It was about 2:00AM when I awoke, still in the hospital bed, and I glanced down to my left. Linda had been sitting in a chair beside me when I fell asleep and she just lay her head on the bed and fell asleep beside me. I could hear her measured breathing and I became aware of how powerful was her love for me. She looked grayer to me and some of her usual boundless energy seemed to have evaporated but she was there, as she had been, all through my seemingly endless nightmare.

    When I called the radio station to share this experience on that Valentine’s Day the lady that answered the phone could not contain her tears when I related the story. The talk show host quickly broke to a commercial after I shared the story over the air. My story of a demonstrated love touched many hearts that day as her love continues to touch mine. Happy Valentine’s Day, my darling.