Rebuilding Hope with Love: Parkinson’s Disease - The Friend I Chose to Leave Behind

Life with Kartik was good, however, seeing him with Parkinson’s was difficult and painful. I had to learn to understand it and muster the strength to fight it on a daily basis. I would get confused when Kartik would tell me that he is stuck. Stuck? I could not understand. Sometimes the medicine worked well and at other times I have seen him in immense pain. According to me, medicines should always work then why would they not?

Every dosage he took, it was like fighting for his life because it takes forty-five minutes to one hour for the medicines to work, then the body cramps and slowly releases His strong will power helped him to overcome and fight against this cruel disease. I often wondered from where does he get the spirit and energy to keep pushing himself day after day. I realized that he keeps pushing himself because I was the driving force.

I always asked myself a question, ‘If something happened to me, would Kartik leave me and the answer is, never’. He gives me so much respect, love and freedom. Life is NOT always full of roses. I chose to live with Kartik and walk by his side through this journey of life. LOVE, RESPECT, COMPROMISE AND UNDERSTANDING are the ‘Keys to the wonderful journey called marriage’.

Arti Singh