Amour, A French Film

   Felisa’s one great love died at the age of 41.  She was 46, 5 years his senior.  For 15 years she secretly envied the gray haired couples wiping each other’s face over dinner or walking hand in hand in the park or mall.  The Viagra and Cialis commercials on television broke her heart all the time.  She wallowed in her memories of her moments with her late husband while she stared at his photograph on her computer desktop.  In privacy she relived his kisses and gentle touch. 

   At 60 she saw the French film Amour.  It stars Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva who was nominated for an Oscar Best Actress for her portrayal of an elderly dying wife.  The movie showed the elderly couple enjoying a meal with her courteously listening to his telling an anecdote and encouraging him for more. Everyone knows when a couple have been married to their 80‘s each of them have heard the other’s stories multiple times before.  The wife listened like she was hearing something new.

   The couple went out for entertainment and as soon as they got home the old man told his wife she looked good that evening.  He must have said those words a million times before but it would always sound new to a wife.

   Towards the end of the movie the wife’s health deteriorated and the husband insisted on caring for her himself, changed her diapers, spoon fed her and carried her to and from her wheel chair. 

   The love the movie portrayed was admirable but at the end of the movie Felisa no longer envied the elderly couples.  She thought if her husband had not died and they grew old together, would she want the coolest guy that walked this earth to change her diapers? NO WAY!