The Most (Un)Epic Love Story Ever

On this episode of Our American Stories, Shiloh Carozza McCall shares how, in the worst of circumstances, she came to realize that the man she was dating was the rare kind of person you want to spend the rest of your life with.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American
people coming to you from where the West begins in
Fort Worth, Texas. Up next, a story from a regular
contributor of ours. When I met a few years ago
at a class I taught on storytelling at Hillsdale College,
Shiloh Carosa McCall. Here she is to share the story

(00:33):
of how she fell in love with her husband, among
other things. Take it away, Shilah.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Do you ever look at someone else's life story and think, Wow,
what an exciting, adventurous life. I wish mine had that
much dramatic value. Maybe most people don't think that way,
but writers often do. And I'm a writer, so naturally
I wanted my love story to be as epic as possible.

(01:08):
The thing is, it didn't start out epic. It started
out on e harmony. And the other thing is epic
usually involves some level of uncomfortable. I think I knew
that early on. As Austin and I started talking, he'd
reached out first. I saw he was an Air Force officer,

(01:30):
so he couldn't be that dangerous. Our conversations floating smoothly,
we had good chemistry, our beliefs lined up. We even
called each other's mentors to get the background check before
flying out to visit. Everything checked out, but it was
almost too easy, too smooth. Where would the real test come. See,

(01:53):
I'd learned from previous relationships that until you go through
something hard together, a guy could be gaslating you into
thinking he's someone he isn't. But pretending gets hard when
life gets hard. That's why, four months into our long
distance relationship, I distinctly said to my mom, I don't

(02:13):
think I could ever be sure of a man unless
he walked through something really hard with me. Well, God
hurt that. And then the pain started, first a gnawing
in my right thigh, then burning that came and went,

(02:37):
then burning that never left, Then muscle spasms that started
any time I moved my leg the wrong way. By
the end of May, I was on crutches, unable to walk,
and unable to even sit or lie peacefully because of debilitating, seizing,
hip and leg pain. Unlike anything I had ever experienced.

(03:00):
The diagnosis process itself was months long, and for some
time I was even on the watch for debilitating bone disease, cancer,
and multiple sclerosis and MRI eventually revealed a laboral tear,
an injury common in runners, but one that surgeons hesitate
to operate on because they want you to do every

(03:20):
imaginable therapy first. The wait list to even see a
surgeon was over two months, so my whole summer was
effectively canceled, and so are my plans of being a fun, spunky,
adventurous girlfriend. I could no longer travel to visit Austin,
so he came to me. He washed my feet because

(03:43):
I couldn't. He put my shoes on because I couldn't.
He handed me my crutches every time I tried to
get up. He wheeled me around the neighborhood in my
wheelchair so I could see nature and the neighbors I'd
grown up with. He helped me in and out of
cars of couches. He carried me out of Lake Michigan
when I couldn't stand in the waves. He paused movies

(04:07):
so I could just cry. When the pain got so
intense I couldn't focus on the film. I still hadn't
healed by the time he proposed. By this time, I
had lost over ten pounds for muscle atrophy and depression,
my clothes barely fit. Finding a wedding dress that hid
the boniness in my chest and arms was a real challenge.

(04:29):
Lots of brides planned to lose weight before their big day,
but my weight loss wasn't planned, and it wasn't wanted.
We knew Austin was going to deploy to the Middle
East in four months, and if we got married beforehand,
I might not be healed. We both knew I needed
the surgery if I was ever going to have a

(04:50):
normal life again, but neither of us knew at the
time he proposed how long that would take and what
my new normal would even look like. He still wanted
to marry me at my most unlovable and my most vulnerable,
at my least physically capable, in a state of depression,

(05:11):
and he loved me. Little did we know that a
fifty person long wait list would open up just in
time for me to get that surgery, just in time
for my insurance to cover it, and just in time
for me to heal enough to walk down that aisle. Yes,

(05:35):
that all happened, and it was, in the surgeon's own words,
a miracle, But Austin didn't count on it. He didn't
care if I used crutches to get down that aisle.
We were going to get married before he deployed. I
hated the journey I'd been on over the past year.
I hated that I couldn't exercise. I hated that I'd

(05:56):
slipped into depression. I hated that I couldn't be fun
and helpful for the man I loved. I hated that
my biggest concern on my wedding day would be can
I get through this day without excruciating pain? But here's
what I love, the man who walked through it with me,
and the God who gave him to me. But most

(06:18):
of all, the picture this gave me of Jesus's love.
See as a Christian, I was used to hearing how
Jesus came for me at my most unlovable and my
most helpless. But I hadn't seen that play out in
a human relationship. Ergo, I couldn't fully appreciate that reality.

(06:39):
I do now. Austin had no guarantee of what a
life with me would look like, but his loyalty no
matter what came, proved he was the kind of man
I could trust, the kind of man you keep when
you find him. Was it epic the journey I took
to realize this? Probably not, but you be the judge.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
And a special thanks to Shiloh Carosa McCall for telling
her love story, an unepic and beautiful one here on
Our American Stories. Lie Habibe here again, and I'd like

(07:34):
to encourage you to subscribe to our podcast on Apple
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