Hey, it's Shemita. Just a heads up, I am having a baby, my second baby. And so I'm going to be stepping away from the mic for a little bit. Pretty soon, you're going to hear some amazing guest hosts, starting with Sam Sanders, the award-winning podcast and radio host. Until then, here is an episode that we recorded before I left. I hope you enjoy it.

This is in conversation from Apple News. I'm Shemitabasu. Today, when the vow in sickness and in health

becomes a uniquely American burden. When Laura Malden was 27 years old, she was a sociology grad student in New York City.

One night she went to a WNBA game with some friends, and that's where she met Jay.

It was sort of like a lightning strike, as they say, and that was kind of it. From that

moment, we were never apart again. Just weeks into the glow of their new relationship, Jay told

Laura that her leukemia, which had long been in remission, had returned. She told me that this is

kind of the last chance.

I have to have this thing called a bone marrow transplant, or this will kill me.

Jay's parents were both dead, and Laura, newly in love, quickly stepped up to help with Jay's care.

The bone marrow transplant was followed by appointments and more treatments,

doctors' visits, and consultations that started overwhelming their lives. Laura didn't notice the shift at first,

but over time she went from being Jay's romantic partner to being her full-time caregiver.

I think all of us think about or want to think about illness in this way. Oh, I just have to do

XYZ and on the other side of that, everything will be resolved and I can go back to my life. But there was

no going back. And as it kind of drug on longer and longer, I realized, oh, this is my role.

I became the one to do it all.

It's been two decades since Jay died.

Laura is now a professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut, and her time as Jay's caregiver inspired her new book,

In Sickness and in Health,

love stories from the front lines

of America's caregiving crisis.

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