The True Test of Love: Soup, Sickness, and Emergency Contacts

When you start dating after 30 and spend over a decade together, life has a way of intertwining your hearts, homes, and holidays. You build routines, traditions, and a shared existence that feels like second nature. But beyond the joy and laughter, there are also the moments that test your resilience—moments you never expected would be part of the fun dating process.


We’ve been through it all: the death of loved ones, surgeries that strip away basic human dignity, and an unforgettable bout with Covid that forced us to rely on one another in new ways.


During those foggy, fevered days of Covid, when neither of us could function properly, we proved something important: together, we make one capable human. We pulled up bar stools to the stove, half-delirious but determined. Chopping vegetables, slicing chicken, and crushing garlic with our combined efforts, we created Laurie’s Chicken Noodle Soup—a meal made with love, laughter, (lots of garlic) and just enough energy to keep us going.


That’s the beauty of a life built together.


Over the years, the natural progression of partnership has woven us into each other’s safety nets. David was the first to add Laurie as an emergency contact on his medical records, instinctively trusting her as his person. Laurie, with a larger circle of nearby family and friends to choose from, took a little longer—but eventually, the choice was obvious.


In sickness and in health, in joy and in sorrow, we’ve already lived so many of the vows people make on their wedding day. We’ve stood by one another in the best and worst of times, learning that love isn’t just grand gestures or romantic evenings—it’s soup made from bar stools when you’re both too sick to stand. It’s a thousand small acts of care and kindness that weave a life together.


And it’s the unwavering knowledge that, no matter what comes next, we will always be each other’s first call.