This time last year, my wife was preparing for emergency heart surgery and we had no idea why. Her pulse was racing, she was short of breath, and the cardiologist said she had the heart of an unhealthy 80-year-old (she was 60 and healthy). The song "Beautiful Things", released 6 weeks before, was a reminder of how fleeting the good things in life, and even life itself, can be.

Please stay
I want you, I need you, oh God
Don't take
These beautiful things that I've got

A few days later we had the answer, and the solution. She had been born with a bicuspid aortic valve, with two flaps instead of three. Her aorta had expanded over the years to compensate, but was starting to become clogged. The valve was replaced, and today she is as good as new.

That was a year ago Friday, and this week we will be travelling to Lanzarote (Canary Islands, Spain) to celebrate her new first birthday.

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