So I got married pretty young. Which shocked virtually everyone who knows me, including myself somtimes. I was always the perpetually single, perpetually uninterested in relationships person, who when the few relationships I did have ended wasn't exactly heartbroken. So it came as a big shock when I announced my engagement, and shortly thereafter got married in an $11 dress at the courthouse. So how did I know? I'm still not totally sure, but a big epiphany moment came for me 6 months into my husband and my relationship.
I've never been the type to cry at movies, I've seen 'em all, Harry and the Hendersons, Lion King, Bambi, Apollo 13, all of 'em, never shed a tear. I was so noted for this in my family that I think my parents secretly thought I was a sociopath. However, 6 months into the relationship I watched a little movie called P.S. I Love You, which is a gripping yarn about a young married couple, and the husband dies early of a brain tumor or hemorrhage, or something else vague and nonspecific. The movie is about how they met, how he died and how she eventually learned to deal with it. It's a really good movie, but you couldn't tell from watching it with me because I cried for about 80% of it. Not cute, tears silently sliding down my face crying, but ugly wracking sobs that turned my nose and eyes red. Even before the husband died I was crying, and then I cried at all the funny parts too. Probably the 20% I wasn't crying was during the credits. I was so emotional because I was thinking about myself (naturally) and how I would feel if my husband died. I was surprised by the strength and depth of my emotion. I've always had a pretty good imagination, which is unfortuante in some cases, and a blessing in others. This case more the the former.
My husband is in the military so it wasn't so far fetched for me to worry about his safety, although I'm sure all wives worry. This also explains why I had a similar crying experience when I made the mistake of watching the movies Brothers and The Messenger when my husband was deployed. Those aren't even particularly sad movies, in Brothers the husband turns out to not have been dead, and in The Messenger he turns out to have been something of a douche. So again my complete sobbing breakdown was maybe not the most rational reaction. Even so small a thing made me realize how much I cared about my husband, and I'm learning in life that it's the small things that count the most.
