Just a Regular Person

W hen I was young and dumb I thought society was divided between the regular people and the suffering people. I of course belonged to the former category. I was a good popular student I came from a good family I got married young I had a great husband I had four adorable children.

And then my husband Yehoshua was diagnosed with a rare untreatable degenerative disease. He had been complaining of some strange aches and pains and a visit to the doctor followed by a blood test followed by an MRI revealed that he was very very ill.

Suddenly we crossed over into the suffering side of society. We lived in Eretz Yisrael and the doctors there told us there was nothing they could do for Yehoshua. We flew to the US for a second opinion but again the doctors told us there was nothing they could do. “Just keep him comfortable ” they said.

For the next two years I watched Yehoshua deteriorate. The medication he was given for the pain made him lose his appetite so he couldn’t eat. He didn’t eat so he didn’t have energy. He didn’t have energy so he couldn’t do anything. Our apartment became his hospital and I became his caregiver.