He says:
A young man once recounted his mother’s battle with cancer [...].
Doctors discovered an aggressive form of breast cancer that required immediate treatment. The chemo and radiation therapy quickly left his mom incapacitated. She lost her hair and appetite while her personal appearance became a skeleton of her former self. What stood out to the young man was when his father would stoop to kiss his bride and exclaim, “Girl! You sexy!” He knew his mother didn’t believe such statements, but it impressed him how his father continued to reaffirm his undying devotion [...].
Most evenings, the young man would hear his mother retching, as his bedroom wall backed up to the family bathroom. The vomiting sessions were violent and loud, often waking him. After months of enduring these interruptions, he stormed into the bathroom one evening, where he found his dad rubbing mom’s back. What surprised him were the two pallets of blankets and pillows laid on the bathroom floor. Every evening, his father had been sleeping in the bathroom next to his wife while she wasted away. Ashamed, he closed the door without protest.
His mom recovered, but he never forgot the lesson his father taught him. Love isn’t sexy most times. But if done right, real love is unconditional and sacrificial.
I don't believe the story about the dad in the bathroom and in any case (in some place in each country those things happen), after a time the dad will surprise the son with some side frienship with some attractive co-worker, or the market cashier, or whomever. Or he was having the affair at the same time that he took care of his wife... It is sanctimonously idealistic, almost what a priest would say to the faithful to teach them how to be honest, caring parents, spouses and citizens.
My dad, as far as I could see, was as in this example. But I wouldn't be surprised if some day a halft-brother or sister pops up somewhere. The readers of such tales, and maybe the author, would be in shock and deeply disappointed, but that is the price for not paying attention to our limited knowledge of human nature.
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