True love is a rare gift that many of us may never know the joy of having. It is hard to find and still harder to keep. We work our way through so many relationships, losing parts of ourselves along the way in search of the right one, and every time we think we have found it and start to get comfortable, we slowly realize that we’ve settled, and this is not what we want. In a time of instant gratification and short attention spans, we have distanced ourselves from ourselves and so have become complacent. How can we cultivate true love when we don’t believe in it anymore? How can we ever know that it is real?
Learning to love yourself will teach you to love others; love languages are a simple and effective tool to understand your relationship with others.
According to Gary Chapman, five love languages will help you love better.[3]
Words of affirmation, acts of service, receiving gifts, quality time spent, and physical touch. Knowing how to love someone will ultimately make your relationship stronger. This story of true love begins in a workplace break room.
Knowing that it would change his life forever, former marine Christopher Dempsey donated half his liver to a stranger who would later become his wife. Two years after revealing that he was a match, the two were wed.
Love triumphs over tough times
Heather Krueger had been suffering from stage four liver disease for just over a year and a half and had been told by doctors that she only had a 50% chance of living another two months with a liver transplant. With more than 119,000 people on the transplant waitlist, Heather and her family were understandably worried. Until she met her literal Knight in shining armor. Mr. Dempsey told the BBC that he decided to get himself tested and found that he was a perfect match for Heather.
“I heard a co-worker talking about his cousin who needed a liver transplant and I just thought to myself, I would want someone to help me or my family in that situation.”
Christopher and Heather spoke for the first time when he called to tell her that he was a match and would be happy to donate part of his liver in early 2015. They later met for lunch that Mr. Dempsey paid for. It was true love at first sight.[1]
True love knows no regrets
In the days leading up to the surgery, Christopher and Heather would spend more and more time together, getting to know one another and not knowing it yet, but also falling in love.
Additionally, Christopher, with the help of his motorcycle club, dedicated themselves to fundraising.
He reported that they would go out in search of donations for a benefit. Finally, he would later admit that the more time he spent with Heather, the more he liked her and wanted to get to know her.
Besides having already been on a few dates before the surgery, Christopher felt confident that “everything was going to be okay” He later confessed that he was extremely nervous as anything could have gone wrong but not for a second did he ever rethink his decision.
“It was all worth it, knowing that she was going to be okay”
The couple became official after a successful transplant. Consequently, Following the surgery, eight months later, during a horse-drawn carriage ride through Chicago, Christopher proposed marriage. After a mere 19 days, the happy couple became Mr. and Mrs. Dempsey. A real-life true love story![2]
Christopher said that it was definitely more emotional for Heather and her parents, knowing what they had been through. He later added:
“I never would have thought in a million years when I agreed to all this that I would marry her. It’s amazing.”
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