“What do I want?”
and begin asking only:
“What does she need?”
Over time, that can become exhausting.
Yet David continued to organize his life around Bruna.
Their Marriage Was Changed, Not Erased
There is an important distinction between these two things.
The medical emergency changed their marriage.
But it did not erase their marriage.
Before 2018, David and Bruna were partners who could share plans, conversations, experiences, and decisions in ways that many couples take for granted.
After the emergency, many of those things were no longer possible in the same way.
Their relationship had to be redefined by circumstances neither had chosen.
But David continued to regard Bruna as his wife.
The woman he had married had not become less worthy of love because she had become dependent on others.
That may sound obvious.
But society often places enormous value on independence.
We admire people for what they accomplish, what they contribute, what they can do for themselves.
Severe disability challenges that thinking.
It reminds us that a person's worth does not disappear when their abilities change.
Bruna still mattered.
Her life still mattered.
And David continued to behave as though that truth was worth defending every single day.
Remembering the Woman Before the Illness
One of the most moving parts of David's story is the idea that he remembers who Bruna was before the medical emergency.
He remembers the woman he married.
The couple who had plans.
The person with whom he expected to grow older.
The ordinary life they were building before that day.
Those memories can be both comforting and painful.