When a Man Loves a Woman

I refuse to see the critically acclaimed film “Amour,” despite the fact that it is nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Foreign Film, Screenplay, Director and Actress. 

It’s a love story between a long-married couple. The wife has a stroke, becomes debilitated, and her husband must care for her.

Sounds simple and touching, right?

The reason why I won’t see it is due to this brief plot summary [Spoiler Warning] from PluggedInOnline.com:

As Anne’s condition deteriorates, Georges struggles to feed her. When she stubbornly refuses to drink and spits her water back at him, Georges gets angry and slaps her face (much to his own shame). As things grow progressively worse, Anne begins repeatedly crying out in pain.

Georges finally can’t take Anne’s lack of capacity, her anguish, her pain any longer. He ends her life by placing a pillow over her face. She jerks and convulses for a time. Then lies still.

The husband “loves” his wife so much that when the going gets tough, he kills her, setting himself up as God. He takes life that only God has the right to take.

His mercy is murder.

Contrast that fictional story with the true love story of Robertson McQuilkin.

His wife, Muriel, developed Alzheimer’s disease in her 50s. As her health deteriorated, he decided to step down from his prestigious job as president of Columbia Bible College and Seminary in South Carolina, to care for her. Here’s an excerpt from his testimony about caring for his beloved wife:

I never think about “what if.” I don’t think “what if” is in God’s vocabulary. So I don’t even think about what I might be doing instead of changing her diaper or what I might be doing instead of spending two hours feeding her. It’s the grace of God, I’m sure.

An interviewer asked, “But do you ever think about what you may have given up to care for her?” McQuilkin responded,