The Daily Beef: How It Should Be

I have the cutest patients. Young and Old. The babies melt my heart but I ADORE my oldies. The stories of past and present and their concerns... really often times confusion makes me giggle....and tests my patience. But they are my favorite.

I love when an older couple comes in together. Seeing them so comfortable with one another makes me smile. Watching them play off of one another and reveal secrets in the office is hysterical. I love when my patient is a male (asking questions about medical history, medications, how often he's wearing his hearing aids, etc) because he always looks to his wife to give the answers. As she speaks he will look at her with such adoration and just smile and agree as she busts him out for being a horrible pill taker, super wax producer, and seldom wearer of his hearing aids. He is usually wearing his veteran hat...proudly proclaiming what branch of the service he served for. You can't help but smile.

Guaranteed he will walk out of the counseling room and tell you how long they have been married. Yesterday I heard, "For seventy-one years I've been married to the same girl. She still takes my breath away". I teared up. How could you not?

I feel like romance like that has changed a lot over the years. It takes finding a prince to have car doors and really doors in general be opened for you. Women and men have different roles these days than in days of the past. You know, times have just changed.

Luckily, we have great examples of how "it"- marriage, love, relationships- should be. I see it every day at work but I also saw it for 20 years with my grandparents. Today would have been their 63rd wedding anniversary. My grandparents ADORED each other. Seeing the sweet twinkle in my Papa's eye when he would tell the story about the first time he saw Mimi could make you cry.