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Marriage

At the End of My Life, It’s You I Want Beside Me

  • 2  Minute Read
Man and woman silhouette at beach
Image via Angela Anagnost-Repke

When marriage gets hard, I picture myself old. Grayed hair, shriveled little body, with feet difficult to put in front of the other.

I want you there with me.

Holding my hand, spinning my old wedding band around my finger, rocking on the front porch.

I want you there with me.

Laughing about times when our kids were young—like when our son wrote his name with a key on the red car, or our daughter telling her whole preschool class precisely how she was born.

I want you there with me.

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We’ll look back as we sit on that front porch. Talk about the tough times. When you lost a job, my mom fought cancer when our own children were babies, our parents’ passings, when we both felt resentment for different reasons. When marriage felt too heavy. We’ll be joyous in our triumph—because our love will be the greatest accomplishment of our lives.

I want you there with me.

When my body begins to wear down from sickness or old age, I want you there with me.

No one else.

When I’m scared, resting in a bed, wondering if I’ll really make it to heaven.

I want you there with me, looking me right in the eye, reassuring me that it’s OK to leave.

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When my chest rises and falls one last time and my eyes finally close forever—it’s you I want there with me.

We’re still rather young in our marriage, but when things get difficult, I think about the end of our story. And it’s you I want in it.

Until the end.

This post originally appeared on Angela Anagnost-Repke, Writer

 

 

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Articles by Angela Anagnost-Repke

Angela Anagnost-Repke

Angela-Anagnost Repke is a writer and writing instructor dedicated to raising two empathetic children. She hopes that her graduate degrees in English and counseling help her do just that. Since the pandemic, Angela and her family have been rejuvenated by nature and moved to northern Michigan to allow the waves of Lake Michigan to calm their spirits. She has been published in Good Housekeeping, Good Morning America, ABC News, Parents, Romper, and many more. She is currently at-work on her nonfiction parenting book, Wild Things by Nature: How an Unscientific Parent Can Give Nature to Their Wild Things. Follow Angela on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram  

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