We started out as friends. He was 15 , I was 14. We used to go to movies together and hang out with our group of neighborhood friends and one day we just realized that our feelings for each other grew into something more than friends. He was my first love and my ninth grade prom date .

There are many. Beach trips , music festivals, spending time with our blended families... but the most important memory is his lung transplant journey . In January of this year , he received the gift of new lungs. My favorite memory is seeing him wake up from surgery and smile at me. Up until we got the word that they found lungs for him , I didn't think he would survive the wait. We are the perfect example of for better or worse... and in sickness and in health.

After a very sudden illness followed by a rapid decline, we found ourselves in the fight of our lives, and him being placed on the lung transplant list . I had to take early retirement from my job as a ped. home health nurse, to be his full time caregiver . We had to live in his transplant city for 131 days, renting an apartment after he was discharged . Finances were tight . That money would help us with medical expenses and the financial burden of his life long anti rejection medication .