One man is using his experiencing coping with the devastating loss of his wife to help others gain insight into overcoming grief.
When John Polo first saw Michelle, he fell deeply in love with her. The two high school goers dated fearlessly but parted after only 12 months of a wild romance!
8 years after they parted company, they bumped into each other again, but this time it was really meant to be, for real!
The two promised each other to be together for the rest of their lives and soulmates, with Michelle’s daughter, they made the decision to be a family. Michelle and John were going to spend their life together, with Michelle’s daughter, of course, a life of love and friendship!
Two years on though, after taking up their relationship again, Michelle had some sad news, she was diagnosed with a “one in seven billion” rare and aggressive type of cancer, it was devastating.
Michelle is a life coach and author and John is Michelle’s biggest pillar of strength during these trying times ahead, and there were going to be many!
With all this going on, Michelle and John thought they would quite like to go for a basic ceremony, at the courthouse, before she must have the cancer removal operation, they would fight it as a married couple.
She recovered from the operation but then had cancer come back again, they took two very special holidays, like a honeymoon really, to Disney and to Las Vegas too!
Her diagnosis was much worse this time though, Michelle and John celebrated their love for each other in the few days they had remaining with each other, they had their full wedding with friends and family all in tow to witness their love.
It was lovely, they Michelle even got the Wedding dress of her dreams, she kept that a secret from John though. He worried that she wouldn’t have time left to wear it…
“Her dream dress. She loved that dress SO much. While at the hospice, she would talk to people about how great the wedding was going to be.”, John said.
The Dress hung in the closet, it was ready for the big day, the tuxes were being altered too, sadly though Michelle couldn’t hold on any longer, she was 30 years old and it was only just two weeks before the ceremony.
Only two and a half years after the diagnosis, the couple’s dream of spending all their lives together vanished, John was broken.
He was given a little glimpse into what could be just a week after Michelle passed on, it shook his every bone.
John was looking through his wife’s phone and saw a photo, which was of Michelle wearing the lovely Wedding dress that she dreamed of wearing, in a moment he realized it really was THAT dress!
“I lay motionless in bed, both happy and devastated.”, he said.
John was in floods of tears, he lost the love of his life, remembering how happy Michelle was to have found the perfect dress for her special day, it was a cherished memory, it completely captured that special moment with the dress on.
John will always keep that photo and completely cherish it, it’s likely he will marry again he said, but he will never ever forget his first love!
In a recent Facebook post, John shares a poem he wrote inspired by a photo of Michelle in that very dress… one that he never got to see her wear.
What a powerful post. John’s blog shares his journey of recovery at Better Not Bitter Widower, but through it all, he insists that his love for Michelle will never fade. It’s pretty clear how much he truly adores her, even now.
