You Don’t Know My Husband

The handsome groom, Jason Greenberg, September 30, 2006. http://www.LaughlinPhoto.com

Jason doesn’t know I’m blogging this, and if he did he’d probably be mortified, but I’m writing it anyway!

I married Jason Greenberg in September, 2006, and it was definitely the best thing I ever did. He’s been a great husband and is going to be an amazing daddy. Actually, he already is an amazing daddy, because he’s been taking care of this pregnant mommy quite well for the past nine months.

As some of you know, Jason plays classical guitar. It’s a complex and beautiful instrument, and he’s a very dedicated student. What you most likely don’t know though, is that one of Jason’s favorite things to do on weekends is to donate his time to play for cancer patients at Texas Children’s Hospital. Sometimes the patients are in their teenage years. Others are mere infants.

He’s played at Texas Children’s quite a lot, although less frequently of late since I’m due any day now, and the hospital is a good hour drive from our house. So, more and more, he’s been playing at nearby retirement homes, nursing homes, and hospices.

Some of the hospice patients are more coherent than others, but Jason’s music is always appreciated by the patient’s families, even if the actual patient is unaware he is there.

I don’t know if you’ve ever been to a hospice, but they are very somber places. Some of the patients are alert and responsive, others cry quietly to themselves in bed, and still others stare blankly into the air or appear to be sleeping. They are all waiting for the end. And while they wait, Jason plays them music.

Last week, he was invited to play one last time for an elderly man who had left the hospice to spend his final nights in a private home. Sadly, the man died before Jason could get there.

Yesterday, he played again at a hospice in The Woodlands. He returned home very solemn, so I asked him what was wrong. There had been a woman at the hospice that morning whose husband had passed away while Jason was playing. She called Jason into their room, and was holding her husband’s hand and crying when she thanked Jason for his music.

THAT is my husband. I am so proud of him. I’m so grateful to God that He blessed my baby girl and I with such an amazing husband, father, and role model.

Jason doesn’t seem aware that not everyone visits dying people that they’ve never met in hospices, or seriously ill children and their grief-stricken families in hospitals. He never talks about the things he does for others, and he doesn’t seem to think that they are notable or unusual or really anything special. He just does them … because he’s Jason … and I am continually amazed by him …