Man Dying for Wife is Tragic yet Hopeful

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By Grace Tzeng

 

Would you die for the one you love?

Seventy-six-year-old Dorwin Stoddard did.  

A few months ago on January 8, 2011 Dorwin was shot in the head while shielding his wife Mavy,
who was shot in the leg three times. 
 

Jared Lee Loughner was on a shooting rampage and critically wounded his target -- U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords.  Five other people were killed and more than a dozen people were wounded near Tucson, Arizona.

Taking a bullet for the one you love is indeed the ultimate sacrifice of love. 

As I researched the story, what made it romantically poignant was the fact that although the story ended tragically, I found a positive spin to it. 

Mavy and Dorwin got a second chance at love.  According to Stoddard’s obituary, the couple had been grade school sweethearts growing up in Tucson. They moved away and married other people.  When their spouses died, they moved back in the 1990’s, fell in love again and got married.

It’s wonderful that they reunited after their spouses died.  Many people do not marry after a spouse passes away.  But Mavy and Dorwin were fortunate to have kept in touch and married one another after so many years being apart.  So in a way, theirs was a beautifully romantic love story. 

We should learn from the Stoddards and seize the opportunity to find love in our lives and not be afraid of what the future holds. They spent over ten years together in their senior years.  

I also imagined what it was like to be holding a loved one in my arms as he lay gasping for air and bleeding.  I read many accounts that said that Mavy and Dorwin spoke for 10 minutes after he was shot.  

I'm sure there was adrenalin that was pumping through them.  Mavy's heart must have been pounding rapidly as she tried to think of everything she wanted to say to her husband.  And he probably struggled to utter words to her.  

I wondered what heart-felt sentiments were exchanged during those precious minutes.  Or maybe there were words she wanted to say, but couldn’t think of during that rushed chaotic time.

What would you say in the last ten minutes of your life to the one you love? 

And I also wondered, would I jump in front of a bullet for a man I love?  That’s a scary thought.  I hope I never have to be in that situation or make that choice. 

How many of us would do it?  Would you die for the one you love?