Doctors told him to take his wife to live in a nursing home. But Andy Fierlit decided he would take her on trips around the world instead.
Andy decided that his wife’s diagnosis of partial paralysis would be an opportunity rather than a tragedy.
“I made a promise to her that we would go on to work out as best a life as possible,” Andy told CNN.
Andy and his wife Donna were high school sweethearts and met in 1958. The couple has four children and 12 grandchildren together.
He recalls the very first time he had the nerve to talk to her.
“So, I approached Donna and my pickup line at the time was, ‘Do you have any gum?’ Well, she told me to ‘Get lost,'” he recalled.
She eventually realized how much he truly cared for her and the couple got married five years later.
“I feel he truly loves me,” Donna told News 8 WTNH. “That he would do anything in the world for me.”
That love continued, and perhaps even got stronger, when Donna fell ill at a Christmas party in 1991.
She thought she was going to bed with a migraine that night but ended up suffering from a brain aneurysm the next day that left her paralyzed on the left side.
Doctors urged the North Haven, Connecticut father to place his wife in a nursing home since she would require a significant amount of care. But Andy never considered that for even a moment.
Instead, he booked a trip for them to Bermuda.
“Sure, it’s a challenge, but I’ve loved Donna from the day I met her and can’t imagine doing anything else,”he said “From that first trip, I’ve always said, ‘Why not?’ The worst that can happen is that it turns into a nightmare.”
A nightmare that didn’t seem worse than being away from his beloved.
“She never complains, she never asks, ‘Why me?’ and she’s grateful that this happened to her and not her children or grandchildren,” Andy says.
“Donna isn’t mobile and she has short-term memory problems, but she can tell you her father’s license plate from 1955, and she’s a lot of fun to travel with. We have a deep love for each other and we’ve always believed that when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.”
Now Donna gets around in a wheelchair that she named “Proud Mary” since its wheels just keep on turning. Her husband helps her to get dressed and perform other tasks.
And when they travel things don’t always go as planned.
“The challenges are there,” Andy admits. “But if you think ahead and preplan, you can overcome them.”
She also had to be carried down the steps in Zimbabwe since you could only deplane by stairs.
But regardless, they always make it work. They have traveled to all seven continents and more than 20 countries together over the last 30 years.
“I’ve had a spectacular life and I’m extremely grateful,” Donna told People. “Every day has been an adventure with a husband like Andy.”
An adventure they may have never embarked had they listened to doctor’s orders.
“My parents have really tested the ‘for better or worse, in sickness and in health’ part of their wedding vows, but my mom getting sick never changed their love for one another,” daughter Allison Peters told People.
“It just made it grow in a different direction, and I think it focused them to live each day to the fullest and not put off things they wanted to do. That’s why they’ve traveled the world.”
The Fierlits are surely glad that they chose love over a fear of the unknown.
“You know, it takes a lot of things to make love. It takes patience, it takes understanding, it takes kindness,” he told CNN. “One step at a time. That was the goal: to live on, enjoy life.”
Learn more about their beautiful love story in the video below.
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
