Love is Blind

When I was in sixth grade I was walking to school on the last day before our winter break. There was a slight coating of ice and snow all around me. Munching on my log pretzel as I walked, I was thinking about Peggy Fleming, a famous figure skater. I had just watched her skating on television. Appreciating that I was on the smoothest sidewalk on our block, I felt inspired to try one of her moves. Next thing I knew I had fallen to the ground. Crying, I ran back home to my mom. I had broken my front tooth. She encouraged me to go to school and not worry about it; we’d go see the dentist later.

Fast forward about 10 years. After temporary caps, no caps, and a root canal, I finally had a permanent cap. No one could tell my tooth was broken when I smiled. Due to all the dental work, I had become somewhat insecure about my teeth. Don and I were newlyweds when we decided to go out to eat at a local fish restaurant. After thanking God for the food, we began to eat. I took one bite and somehow my cap broke and fell off. Startled, I covered my mouth and began to cry. My husband looked confused at my behavior. (This wasn’t the first time nor the last!) He gently asked me what was wrong. I couldn’t seem to answer. “Let me see,” he said. I told him that I didn’t want him to see me like this. He wanted to make sure there was no blood. I was too upset and kept my face hidden under my hands as I sobbed. I finally managed, after much coaxing, to tell him that my cap had fallen off.

He convinced me to let him see my mouth. “It doesn’t look so bad,” he said. Pacified, I stopped crying and even found my cap in my French fries. I went to the restroom to look in the mirror. In one glance I went from feeling mollified to being horrified! I didn’t know the dentist had filed the remaining tooth so far down. No one told me that the root canal would cause what little was there to turn black. Where my tooth should have been was a small, black stub. How could Don have said it didn’t look so bad?

I returned to the table but was unable to eat. We went home. I called the dentist to make an appointment. Bless his heart; the dentist fit me in the very next morning. Taking my cap with me I sat in the office, trying not to open my mouth until I was sitting in the dental chair. After looking in my mouth he said he could make a new cap (a better one!) and could fix my old one to stay on until then. He patted my shoulder to comfort me and said, “Don’t worry. I won’t make you go out in public like that.”

The dentist saw the ugly black stub.

My husband looked beyond the stub. He determined to only see the woman he loved.

There is great security and happiness in knowing someone loves you as you are. After celebrating 43 years of marriage this week, it still makes me want to smile—black stub, new cap, and all.

(This story can be found in my book More Screams, Different Deserts)