GODLEY, Texas — After meeting Penney in 2009 and dating for a year, 76-year-old Justin Redman, of Godley, was ready to propose.
He just hoped she wasn’t ready to say yes.
“I tried everything possible to try to talk her out of marrying me,” Redman said.
He says he just didn’t have the heart for it. Literally. At 41, Redman suffered a heart attack.
In the 35 years since, Redman has had countless surgeries and procedures to try and fix what’s broken. Doctors have told him his heart is so weak it could stop beating any minute.
“He goes, ‘I don’t think we should see each other anymore,’ and I was like, ‘what did I do,’” Penney recalled.
“I just wanted to spare her pain and hurt if I passed away immediately,” Justin Redman said.
Not long ago, however, Justin had a small, innovative heart pump called Impella installed at the Heart Center of North Texas, which gave him more time to treasure his wife.
Justin and Penney decided his health issues weren’t enough to stand in the way of how they felt.
“I just decided I was going to make this relationship the best possible,” Justin said.
Knowing each day may be his last, Justin intended to live like it. For decades, Penney dreamed of growing peaches, so he planted trees. When she commented about a painting of the Texas flag she liked, Justin painted one for her on the side of their shed.
“He always seemed to make my life better every day,” Penney said.
“I found that I got back ten-fold of what I gave,” Justin said.
Many people will celebrate Christmas with presents under the tree. But Justin and Penney say no gift will ever compare to what they’ve found in each other.
“I’d rather spend a day making her happy,” he said.
“I still tell him today, any extra day with you is more than 1,000 without him,” she said.
Loving someone means Christmastime matters, but there is one time that matters more: Now.
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