Weddingbee Blog

We all know the classic traditional wedding vows. We’ve heard them a hundred times over. In case they have slipped our minds, here’s a refresher:

I, (Name),
Take you, (Name),
To be my (wife/husband);
To have and to hold,
From this day forward,
For better, for worse,
For richer, for poorer,
In sickness and in health,
To love and to cherish,
Till death do us part.

In there, there’s this tiny statement: “In sickness and in health.” Couples say it every day, and I have no doubt they mean it. But now I know 100% that Mr. Lox is willing to hold up his end of this bargain.

This week, I went back to the doctor. Again. I’ve been hinting at being sick, but it’s been worse than I’ve let on, dear hive. This week when I went to my doctor to follow up, yet again, she said something horrible. “It could be leukemia.”

It was like a bomb dropped in the room. And no sooner did I get out of her office than Mr. Lox was on the phone wanting to know what had happened at my appointment. So I had to tell him. And boom went the bomb again. We both spent the better part of this week terrified.

But out of terror, here is what I learned. Mr. Lox is truly beside me, in sickness and in health. He spent his week combing the Internet for information. He visited medical sites, Wikipedia, and message boards. He found out how much medication would cost, what treatment would be, how my insurance would respond. By the time I got to a hematologist yesterday, Mr. Lox was an expert on leukemia.

The good news is, I don’t have cancer. No one knows what I do have, but it’s not cancer. And the better news is that I know even if it had been cancer, Mr. Lox was going to be by my side no matter what. “In sickness and in health” was not a vow he would take lightly. Even before we have taken our vows, he is committed to me and to us. No matter what.

We are writing our own vows, or at least that’s the plan right now. So the traditional “In sickness and in health” may not be a part of what he pledges to me. But after this week, it may somehow be a part of what I say to him.

Are you writing your own vows or saying something traditional? What do your vows mean to you?