As with other families out there, my wife and I call each other very frequently each day. This day was not different, except as it regards the nature of the call she made. As I picked up her call and said my “Hello”, the words were still in my mouth when she asked how I was and whether I was taking any medication. Of course she knows the medication that I was taking but apart from these, I wasn’t taking any other. Well, she said “you must start taking some multivitamins”. It was an order and I knew I wasn’t going to win any argument if I were to start one. Having been married to her for close to two decades, somethings have become very obvious.

As soon as she picked me up and welcomed me back home, off she went and when she came back it was with some packs of pills. Okay, I was taken aback and asked must I really take these? She gave me the silent look and continued with selecting a combination of these pills. As I watched, it was like an attempt by her to replicate the colours of the rainbow. She held the pills in the pill bottle cover in one hand and with a glass cup of water on the other hand, she asked that I open my mouth. Like a baby, I opened my mouth and in went the water and then the pills. It was a great effort for me to swallow the pills as they were big but I eventually succeeded. Without further being asked, her training as a medical personnel took over and she started explaining to me how our bodies age and become unable to fully breakdown food nutrients. As this occurs, she mentioned, the body needs help through the use of supplements for it to continue to function at tip top shape.

Well, she went ahead and brought the different packs of the supplements that I had just swallowed and told me they are one of the best in the market and that they had cost her a fortune and if I was interested, I should go online and read a little more about them. As we went to bed that same night, she told me how much she worries about me and cares. That in recent times, we’ve witness the loss of a couple of close family friends and colleagues and that she felt that the little way she can help was to get both of us to take care of our bodies. She mentioned that she wanted us to age gracefully together and does not wish any of us to spend our old age alone without the other. She added that she realized that God is in control and surely is the one who will decide when it is time to call us home but before he makes that decision, we should do what is needful to keep ourselves in great shape – Spirit, Soul and Body.

As I held her and listened to the words she was speaking, I was deeply touched.  I have never had course to doubt her love for me but I was again moved by the extent of her care and concern for our wellbeing. I pulled her close and gave her a peck to her face and told her how grateful I am to have her as my wife. I jokingly asked her, what was in this for her? She turned towards me and said it was her insurance for a graceful old age. I knew it, she wanted me alive so that I could run those little errands for her and provide for our daily living. You are using me, I cried out! In her sleepy silent voice she responded “isn’t that what you are good for”?

Each day since, she has kept me on a daily regimen of these multivitamin, multimineral and concentrate dietary supplements to which she also added an omega-3 complex. Sweetheart, I know you will read this and it is another way through which I am saying thank you. Thank you for being there, dependable and truly caring for me and for our great kids. Love you tons, now that you have made me a “drug addict”.