The summer between my sophomore and junior year of high school, my mom went to the doctor complaining about a ringing in her ear and a headache. To be safe, they took an MRI of her head and found a ping-pong ball sized aneurysm, the largest the hospital has ever seen, resting as a ticking time bomb on her cerebellum. Immediately, she was rushed to the ER and put into a tedious 8 hour surgery. When she woke up, immediately my dad and I both knew something wasn’t right. We learned very quickly that she had suffered a stroke during the operation. Because of this, she could no longer walk, eat, or drink on her own. I’m an only child and I was forced to grow up quickly because of this. My dad travels for months at a time for his job not because he wants to, but because he has to and at times, I was left at home with a mom who needs to be fed through a tube every 4 hours, has trouble using the bathroom on her own, and is depressed in ways an average person could not even imagine. When my dad is there, he’s there. He hugs her and kisses her and lays with her on the couch calling her sweetheart as if nothing had ever happened. He holds her hand anywhere they go and most literally tends to her every want and need, no matter how demanding. Down to even painting her nails or doing her hair for her every morning. One day in the car, with the first crack in his voice I had ever heard, he said ” You know I could have easily left her there in that vegetable state. I could have been that guy that goes off when things get hard. She may not be the woman I married anymore, but I love her just the same and I would never take the easy way out. In sickness and in health, I made a promise.” Word for word, that echoed around in my mind for days. This is what love is. In its rawest and most beautiful form. My dad is my hero and I hope to be half the man he is and know a love like this in my lifetime.