Hockey Imagines

Corey Crawford

Another update wow I'm on fire.

Anyways recently I came to a conclusion that I have way to many ideas for stories and no time to write any of them so I now made a book that will be filled with story ideas for you guys to adopt. I really hope some of you go check them out and maybe even write amazing fanfics from them because hockey fanfics are my fav.

Okay I'm going to shut up now :)

Word Count: 1400+

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Anniversary:

an·ni·ver·sa·ry

noun

noun: anniversary; plural noun: anniversaries

the date on which a couple was married in a previous year. Example: he even forgot our tenth anniversary!

That is a definition of an anniversary. There is actually 4 different ones, but only one applies to this situation.

In the back of your mind you have yourself convinced that he will remember your anniversary, but in the darkest parts of your mind you know he won't. You used to be able to come home from work and light up his day, especially after he retired because he was too old. Yet you didn't want to face the realization that he had forgotten so you sat in your car.

It was wonderful at first, having him home more often. You weren't accustomed to him around, and you moved back to your shared hometown Châteauguay, Quebec. Finally it seemed to be the perfect life.

You two waited a couple of years so that your youngest could graduate high school , then the two of you sold your home in Chicago and moved to start his retirement off fresh. That's why you didn't notice the symptoms right away. It was easy to assume that forgetting his keys, or not being able to remember a certain players number, even when he first became disorientated downtown. It was a new city to live in, a new house so you assumed it was normal for him to have forgotten wherehis keys were; hell, you had done it a couple times yourself.

Then it progressed to a point of no return and flipped your world upside down. He had turned the oven on and left a pizza in there to cook. Instead of staying around to cook it, he forgot about it and left it in the oven. When you came home after work about 30 minutes later the kitchen was smoked out, and the pizza would have been minutes away from catching fire.

That was what opened your eyes to something being wrong, he was sick and endangering his life and yours.

The doctors only helped confirm your suspicions about him. They went and put him through a series of tests, finally a doctor came to you with a diagnosis.

-

"Mr. and Mrs. Crawford, I'm happy you could make it here today," the doctor smiled.

You only could think to hold Corey's hand through this. There was nothing you would be able to do to fix anything so you just held his hand in support.

"Right. well as you know we did many tests. Our CT scans were clean, so were the MRI's... all of the tests came back clear. That's why we asked questions about his past few years, and we got you to provide the correct answers before hand... We had suspected that he might get them wrong without realizing it," he explained. "That test gave us our clear diagnosis, and it might be a hard one to handle. We have strong belief that you have early onset Alzheimer's."

-

At first it made no sense. the diagnosis made no sense. Alzheimers seemed like the wrong answer, but all it took was a few weeks after the doctor said something before you realized he was right.

Corey started to forget he had been retired for 2 years, began talking about going to a retirement dinner that the players held for him during the off season. It began to appear more clear when you were always reminding him of why you lived in Quebec not Chicago, why he had retired, how old he actually was; 43.

Eventually it had become too much to handle, he wouldn't sleep at normal times and he would forget to eat even though you would leave him post it notes to remind him.

Taking care of someone with Alzheimers was a full time job, that's why when his first lucid day came you tried your best to explain to him. He knew he was forgetful, and he knew about the doctors but not his final diagnosis. You were the one to tell him, with tear filled eyes, that he had Alzheimers.

-

"Why are you even here? It's something difficult to deal with, you can leave and I'll get someone to help me. I can be okay without you." he spoke in a serious nature, holding both your hand tight.

You forced a smile through your tears, "I took a vow. For better or worse. I've had plenty of 'betters' and this is the 'worse'. I'm not going to leave you now."

"You can put me in a care faculty, I'll be alright there too," he kissed your forehead afterwards. "I love you so much, please remember that. Remember how much I love you when I don't please. Remember for the both of us."

-

That was the day your husband gave you permission to find people who are trained to deal with Alzheimers and eventually you had to take him up on that offer. It had gotten to a point where he couldn't recognize his son or daughter, and you knew it wouldn't be long before it was you too.

And everyday after you admitted him to the nursing home you would visit him. Every day for two hours you visited until the day you had dreaded most came.

The day he looked at you confused when you sat down next to him. "You're gorgeous, can I have your number?" he asked you.

When that had finally happened your heart had broke into a million pieces that couldn't be put back together.

That's why you were scared of how bad it would be when you'd walk in. After all it had been almost 1 month of no visits, the nurses had suggested you visit less. You were confusing him. Slowly your daily visits became every other day, then once a week, then once every two weeks, then once a month.

It took a long time before you found your courage, but you took a deep breath and left your car to go and see him.

You walked through the doors of the home with a card and picture in hand; a picture of you two in the church during your wedding. The love you both had in your eyes, you could only hope it was enough to remind him.

Of course your expectations weren't that high, you expected him to flirt with you instead of say "Happy Anniversary baby."

Of course when you walked into the free time area where he would normally be reading something or playing chess, you didn't expect your heart to be crushed even more.

He was happily laughing with another woman in the home, even kissing her once. What you expected was 100 times better than what happened. He had fallen in love with another woman who was younger and pretty than you. Seeing that caused a pain to go through your chest, one that immobilized you and made it hard to breathe. Every breath was painful and hurt your chest to take. The heart break you were experiencing hurt so much that you wished you could tear your heart out of your chest and die.

Instead of interrupting him and his new girl, you let him stay as happy as he could be. Despite your pain and heartbreak you looked to a nurse nearby and forced a smile on your face. "Excuse me, I actually have to run but I was wondering if you could leave this in my husbands room, maybe on his bed?"

The nurse didn't object, or question. It seemed like she knew what you were feeling and took the envelope with your card and the photo without question.

"Thank you, his room is 105," you tried your best to hold back tears. It was a short walk from the nurse to your car. and you did it as fast as you could.