Dear Umair,

This was such a lovely heartfelt and yes, even quite romantic essay that you wrote. THANK YOU :)

You married the lovely doctor lady!

It reminded me a bit of both my former "Goth Girl" days (black lipstick, black nail polish, black stockings) and the associated aesthetic that went along with that, but also, of my time as a literature undergrad and I was instantly transported back to a poem I once read: "Porphyria's Lover" by Robert Browning: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46313/porphyrias-lover

I remember when reading it, asking my professor about "what" porphyria "was" and him replying something like: "Oh, it was a disease back in the day, no one has that now" - well, obviously this Etonian educated professor didn't really know what he was saying! I just was (am) so very struck by this condition. Your immense courage and vulnerability in sharing with us is really quite wonderful as well.

And funny, too...

I can only relate in this way: I have vivid blue and also sometimes equally vivid blue AND gray eyes, depending on the colors that I am wearing - meaning that one color will be more dominate than the other BUT every year when I have my pupils dilated at my yearly eye exam, they STAY dilated for up to 8 hours! Seriously!

I could never understand why because in years past, after this procedure would be done, I was told by the receptionist "Oh, it will go away in an hour" but of course, it never did, and I would often find myself stumbling about in my kitchen trying to cook dinner with my prescription sunglasses on because again, almost 8 hours later, my pupils were still as big as saucers! The answer, it turns out, according to my eye doctor, is that it has something to do with the lack of pigment; for example, brown eyed people don't usually have this problem, etc.

So next month, which is my yearly eye exam, I will no doubt be dealing with the same issue...but this condition that you have is something that you must live with everyday and I am totally in awe of you...

And your lovely doctor wife...

And Snowy too! He helps you!!