So last night, my sister and I went to see the movie Love and Other Drugs starring Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal. AH-FREAKING-MAZING. I recommend it to pretty much everyone.
Well basically Jake's character, named Jamie, is a pharmeceutical (spelling?) reprensentative for Pfizer and he meets this girl Maggie (Anne). Maggie has early onset Parkinson's and although she's sick, Jamie and her start a purely sexual relationship. Eventually they become a regular couple and Jamie takes Maggie to Chicago for a convention. While there, Maggie finds others battling and coping with her condition and Jamie meets a man who's wife has stage four Parkinson's. This part hit me the hardest, because the man tells Jamie to leave because eventually Maggie will lose control of everything and he'll have to take care of her completely. The way the man said it was like "pack your bags and leave her a nice note". Of course he was just telling Jamie the truth, but that's not what love is. Most marriage vows say, "in sickness and in health" and you should stick by that. Nonetheless, Jamie tries to find treatment for Maggie which shows how he cares for her. Eventually everything falls into place. But it really does display true love. Jamie loves Maggie regardless of her illness and he promises to be there for her no matter what. That's what real love is.
This also got me thinking about my boyfriend's parents. His mother was diagnosed with MS a few years ago. Although she seems pretty healthy (I had no idea until he told me one night), she is still sick. I know his parents really do love each other, because they're sticking together although she has a degenerative illness. This also applies with my grandparents. My Poppy was a very sick man, he had a heart condition, stomach issues, diabetes, etc. And through it all my grandma cared for him and stayed by his side. I think that love faces it's biggest tests when someone is sick. It truly shows that the couple is in it together when something like happens.
I have seen the previews for the movie and after reading this I want to see it now more then ever! It sounds like such a great movie with an amazing plot behind it. It really does seem to show true love between two people and how strong that love remains even though she has this illness. I also agree with what you said about love being on of the biggest tests of love; if a couple can overcome such serious illness they can conquer anything.
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