ALS means no body language

Developing a friendship with Mike was easy.  Spending time together, laughing over movies, getting to know each other, sharing meals..... all of that was easy.  What wasn't so easy.... trying to figure out if he was starting to feel what I was feeling.  I could tell by the way he looked at me that he enjoyed being with me.  I mentioned that I describe myself as shy, well, this shy girl asked him if he would like to kiss me!  I might as well have been standing there naked for how it made me feel to ask him.  After he kissed me I was a little more sure of how he might be feeling.  But there was still a part of me who thought.... maybe he just wanted to kiss a girl.  After all, the nursing home didn't give him that opportunity often. :)  The next time I visited him I ended up blurting out "I can't tell if you like me, like me.  Usually I go by the guys body language and I can't do that with you.  So, if you want me to know something....."  And again, here comes that big grin.... he types "I like you, like you, Ann".  From then on we were a team.  People at the nursing home started taking notice and out of sheer boredom started trying to mess with my head a bit.  Because I had to pass the nurses station to get to his room I was usually stopped by someone wanting to get gossip started or something.  I would tell Mike all about it and we would laugh.  The best story on that is that the lady who greets everyone and asks you to sign in started telling me how Mike has this friend who visits him all the time and do I know her.  I didn't.  It was the way she said it really that kind of got in my head, so I asked Mike.... "So, who's this Mary that visits you all the time?"  He grins and types "just a friend".  He knew that wouldn't satisfy me but he would say nothing else.  One day I walk in his room and there is this little old woman standing with him.  When she sees me come in the room she comes straight to me and hugs me and says "You must be Ann, I'm Mary!".  I looked at Mike and he is loving every minute of this.... the Mary that I was jealous over was almost 80 years old.  He loved that even in a nursing home and paralyzed, he still had game.  Mary was the biggest supporter of our relationship.  She is family to me now, Little Old Lady Mary.