I thought I was in love 11 years ago when you jumped into a pool and into my life

I thought I was in love 11 years ago when you jumped into a pool and into my life

I thought I was in love 11 years ago when you jumped into a pool and into my life. Your bright smile stood out against your sun-kissed skin as you said, ‘Hello.’

You saw that I had a bag from Beijing, and I noticed your book wasn’t written in English. I thought I liked blue-eyed blondes until I met you. It seems silly now. Every time you smiled, I felt butterflies in my stomach.

I thought that was love. But now I see what true love really is.

You’re lying in a hospital bed, an oxygen tube in your nose, and a blue hairnet on your head. There’s a bag of clear liquid connected to your veins, and a screen showing the ups and downs of your health.

I smile because I remember us doing things together—snowboarding down mountains, surfing in valleys—things you taught me to love.

Tears are falling from my eyes not because I’m scared but because I want to see more of you. I wish I had a thousand eyes to look at you and a thousand hands to touch you.

I’ve cried a lot over our 11 years, but these tears are different. They are tears of pure love, and if I held one up to the light, it would reflect rainbows everywhere.

We stood in Florence and promised to be there for each other, no matter what—through good and bad, sickness and health, to love and cherish each other until death.

Those were the vows we made. The promises we gave each other.

But my soul had already promised you those words long before I wore a beautiful dress or held a bouquet of white roses bought from a sweet old lady in a flower shop in Italy.

Love. Anger. Life. Death. Happiness. Pain. Moving. Countries. Dreams.

These have been our ‘better’ and ‘worse.’ There were times we had plenty of money, and times we didn’t have enough to even bother with a bank account.

Now, I’m sitting here, thinking about your health and wondering if ‘death do us part’ could really happen.

As my heart feels heavy with fear, I remind myself that death can’t separate us.

They’re taking you back to your room now, but I’ll be here when you wake up. Because death can’t part us. Breathe in my love, and you’ll live forever.

I am forever yours.