For Sushma, love is nothing like she ever thought it would be. It is certainly unlike the teenage daydreams that filled her head and had her giddily kicking her feet in the air when she was younger. It’s something deeper. 

 

In fact, the experience of love is hard for her to even describe, beyond mere words and concepts. She can list all the things she knows love isn’t — meet-cutes with shy glances and hearts beating in sync, a dozen deep red roses every day, and blissfully riding off into the sunset with Prince Charming. When it comes to actually describing love, she finds herself at a loss for words, but she does know that she couldn’t live without it.

 

Studying to become a doctor in Gujarat, India, Sushma only had her career on her mind when her family first started making plans for her arranged marriage. She knew this day would come as it did for all the other young women around her age. Sushma grew up seeing the idea of love after marriage all around her, so she was very open to her potential suitors and the whole process of an arranged marriage. 

 

When her parents organized meetings with a couple of men previously, she didn’t feel shocked or nervous, but each meeting ended up being more disappointing than the last. While she knew it wouldn’t be love at first sight for any of her options, she wanted to at least feel a connection. 

 

Well, she did have one more condition. Her future husband would need to be a doctor. She wanted somebody who would understand her life, career, and ambitions. 

 

With that, her father went to work finding a match. He knew the uncle of a young aspiring doctor around his daughter’s age, Hemendra, so he planned the meeting that would forever change the young pair’s lives. On that first date of sorts, there were two things that made her immediately like Hemendra. He was honest and down to Earth. 

 

They didn’t waste time on flowery words to make their hearts flutter or drone on about their accomplishments to make one another’s eyes shine with awe. Instead, they spent their time talking about their lives, their plans, and their dreams. It was real, genuine, and vulnerable, which feels more intimate and bewitching than empty promises and meaningless sentiments of flattery could ever be. 

 

After that first meeting, both Sushma and Hemendra knew they wanted to see each other again, so the pair would sneak into the hospitals where the other interned just to spend more time with one another. Then, it was not long before they both told their families to green-light their marriage. The pair then got married in 1973 before immigrating to London and having their first daughter, Shaily Shah, in 1974. 

 

Once married, Sushma and Hemendra were partners in everything they did, determined to stand by one another. The pair planned to move to London while working towards moving to America, where they would pursue medicine and build a life for themselves and their family, but it didn’t come together as smoothly as they hoped. 

 

At one point, Hemendra was living in America for his residency, Sushma was working in London, and Shaily was living in India with Sushma’s parents. Every day, Hemendra would call Sushma, detailing all the ways in which his life in America felt awful and why he needed to come back to her. She would listen patiently and understandingly before reminding him of his career ambitions and providing cherished words of support every time, without fail. Even with oceans between them, they were each other’s rock. 

 

Eventually, the couple reunited in New York City before getting Shaily back from India, moving to Little Rock, Arkansas, and having their second child, Samir. Finally, Sushma and Hemendra could truly thrive in their partnership. Sushma would take the earlier shifts at the hospital, so Hemendra would handle hectic school drop-offs and groggy mornings with the kids. Since Hemendra took the later shifts, Sushma would handle after-school pickup and fast-paced, chaotic evenings.

 

Even at work, they were partners. For years, they worked at the same hospital, Hemendra as a surgeon and Sushma as an anesthesiologist. There were numerous times when Sushma did the anesthesia for Hemendra’s surgeries. One time, they both got paged to go to the hospital for a surgery when they were out picking furniture for their house. It was exactly what Sushma wanted for herself: someone to share her life and dreams with.   

 

She can’t pinpoint when it happened, but she fell in love with Hemendra. Somewhere in between reassuring late-night calls from different continents, carpooling to the hospital together for surgeries, late nights watching Indian movies while thinking of home, and daily breaks for tea and snacks during lazy late afternoons, Hemendra had completely and utterly stolen her heart.  

 

Their love wasn’t instant like the sweeping tales of love-at-first-sight or the fast-paced can’t eat, can’t sleep love. Instead, their love story was slow and steady. It came from showing up for each other and being partners in life every day, and it has resulted in a connection that is deep and true.