{"id":72083,"date":"2024-04-01T14:54:58","date_gmt":"2024-04-01T07:54:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/?p=72083"},"modified":"2025-02-03T15:37:59","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T08:37:59","slug":"a-love-lesson-i-learned-from-my-parents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/a-love-lesson-i-learned-from-my-parents\/","title":{"rendered":"A Love Lesson I Learned From My Parents"},"content":{"rendered":"

I stood in my bedroom doing my makeup when I heard my parents across the hall in the bathroom.\n

My father was groaning in immense pain and luckily my mother was there to help him. I was a self-absorbed twenty-something at the time\u2014bouncing back and forth between two men like a rubber ball. But this moment between my parents struck me.\n

My father moaned. \u201cIt\u2019s okay, Chris,\u201d my mother said to him. \u201cI\u2019m here.\u201d\n

That was the start of my father\u2019s painful side effects from his prostate cancer years prior\u2014something that would only get worse with time.\n

As I leaned toward the mirror, slipping mascara onto my lashes, I heard more grumbling from my father. I froze. I was stuck in their moment with no place to go. I heard a clank in the bathroom. A mess was made out of my father\u2019s control. My mother would be the one to clean it up. \u201cI\u2019m so sorry,\u201d my dad said.\n

\u201cIt\u2019s okay, Chris,\u201d my mom said. \u201cI\u2019m here.\u201d\n

After I was done with my makeup, I sat on my bed with the door cracked open. While I was nervous about my dad\u2019s health, tears fell onto my jeans because I finally realized something\u2014THIS is marriage.\n

Marriage isn\u2019t found at the big wedding, the trendy date nights or even hours spent together on the couch watching Netflix. Marriage is found in the darkness\u2014with one spouse helping the other during a time that would be humiliating to share with anyone else.\n

As young girls and boys, we watch movies and read stories about happy endings, blissful beginnings, and comedic in-betweens. But true romance is found when two people need each other, are vulnerable to one another, and can wholeheartedly depend on one another during the darkest times in life.\n

I sat on my bed, and at that moment, I decided to stop bouncing. I wanted my future to look like my parents\u2019\u2014imperfect but beautiful. My parents\u2019 marriage and my marriage have been full of dips and peaks, but witnessing the true love in their moment will forever keep reminding me that marriage is found in the toughest spots in life\u2014even the bathroom.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I stood in my bedroom doing my makeup when I heard my parents across the hall in the bathroom. My father was groaning in immense pain and luckily my mother was there to help him. I was a self-absorbed twenty-something at the time\u2014bouncing back and forth between two men like a rubber ball. But this\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":110885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"Marriage isn\u2019t found at the big wedding, the trendy date nights or even hours spent together on the couch watching Netflix.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[642],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-72083","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-moral-story"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/A-Love-Lesson-I-Learned-From-My-Parents.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72083"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110886,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72083\/revisions\/110886"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}