Based on a true real life inspiring story that is still unfolding
“How far would you be willing to go for love?”
The question was to my pregnant fiancée. The woman who was going to be my wife number two shortly. Oddly enough I had no idea where that question had popped out from. Premonition perhaps? Because just a few moments earlier we had been discussing possible names for the baby we were expecting.
Before I met her I had always considered myself unlucky with women. I had not married my first wife out of love. Rather it was a rebound from the woman I thought was the love of my life but who had abandoned me for another man. It was a miracle that the marriage had lasted 10 years.
But it was different with Kim, my pregnant fiancée. This was a woman I was very much in love with even if at 25 she was 15 years younger than I was. We had met at some office cocktail party and hit off right away. And she had clearly demonstrated many times that she too was in love with me. For starters none of her friends had ever been enthusiastic about our relationship, not even her parents. And you wouldn’t blame them. A much older man who had just gone through a divorce, even to me, sounded like an unlikely match for the young bubbly Kim. But she had ignored everybody’s opinion and told even her parents in no uncertain terms that her decision to marry me was irreversible.
We were seated outside the doctors’ waiting for the results to the various tests they usually do on pregnant women.
“With you I would go to the ends of the earth,” Kim responded looking tearfully into my eyes as she warmly pressed my hand.
What I did not know at the time was that our love was about to be severely tested. And in an unforgettable way.
The doctor’s door opened and he ushered us back into his office. I should have guessed from his grim expression that there was something terribly wrong but my mind ignored the tell tale sign. What could possibly go wrong in this relationship that must have been made in heaven?
“I need you to be prepared for what I am about to tell you,” the doctor said.
The next few minutes were a blur. Kim had tested positive for HIV AIDs but my test had come back negative. Kim broke down into tears even as the doctor consoled her that there were many discordant couples (the term they used to refer to couples like us) out there and most of them were very happily married and living normal lives. The big consolation was that in all likelihood our unborn child would end up negative as long as we followed the doctors’ instructions carefully and she took her medication.
After what looked like hours but would not have been more than 15 minutes we left the doctors’ and headed to the parking lot. We sat in the car and Kim told me that she would understand, as anybody would, if I broke off the engagement. That was something I had never considered even for a second. To me when you truly love somebody the terms are no-matter-what. It was as simple as that as far as I was concerned. But then we humans have another pretty strong inclination and it is called self preservation.
“You are clean and if you go on with this there are bound to be big risks for you,” Kim tried to speak calmly but completely failed because her every few words were punctuated with sobs.
I told her that the horrid test result had changed nothing for me and nothing would ever change for me. I reminded her of the question I had asked her moments before her world came crashing down;
“How far would you be willing to go for love?”
I asked her what she would have done if the test results had come the other way round. One of the reasons I loved this woman so much was the fact that she was always blunt and honest with her answers. And this time was no exception.
“I would probably have seriously considered breaking off the engagement… mostly to protect our baby…”
That hurt but I was glad she had said it. That was exactly how a relationship was supposed to work. Brutally honest all the time.
Two years later today we are still in love and our baby, Jack is negative. And so am I, still. But most of all we are happy. I have never asked Kim who gave her AIDs, what’s the point? Ours is the kind of relationship that can last forever and for that I will be forever grateful.
Only her parents know the truth and I often wonder what her friends would think and even those close to me if they knew. Not that their opinion matters, but just curious what they would say. What they would feel. Not everybody believes in that fairy tale that love conquers all. But am sure glad naïve me does.
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