'Til Death Do Us Part

This is not a memory.
I'm kind of breaking my own flow of things here.
But I saw a movie called 'The Sea Inside'
and I have some thoughts that I'd like to get down on 'paper'.

In this movie, a man who suffered a spinal injury
is rendered helpless
and forever a quadriplegic without hope of recovery.
He feels that this is not a dignified way to live
and for the remaining 28 years of his life
he only wishes for death.
He does not marry
because he does not feel he can fully love someone
while in his condition.
He has his older brother, sister-in-law, nephew and father
to care for him and help him with his daily needs.
They feed him, bathe him, and change his clothes.
They also change his positioning every 3 hours
so that he does not get bed sores.
In the movie,
someone comments on how much he smiles.
He responds that with all the help that he needs
and receives from his caregivers,
he has found a way to cry through smiling.
He has a woman that professes her love to him
because she gives him a 'reason to continue living'.
He tells her that he wishes, in no way,
to be her reason for going on,
because in doing so,
her love becomes an obligation for him to continue living.
He tells her that if she loves him
she would respect his wishes
and let him die.
He says that the one who truly loves him
will help him in his quest to die.
As a quadriplegic,
this is a task he cannot do himself.

I was thinking to myself
that this is also how I determine quality of life
and dignity in living.
I do not want to age and become a shadow of my vibrancy.
I do not wish to continue living
if I am not of sound mind and body.
Which is not to say that I do not cherish my life,
or that I feel that people that are in dire situations
and cannot complete their daily needs by themselves
live without dignity or have a lesser quality of their lives...
but for me,
I cannot be a vegetable and be happy.
I don't think I would want to be senile.
Who knows, maybe dementia is sort of fun?
But I think I would be sad
if I couldn't remember the names of my children.
Whatever the circumstances,
that is not the point,
the point I wish to get to
is that I hope
that in my vows to my life partner,
that I will marry or spend the rest of my life
with someone that cherishes my life
enough to not see it fade to something
that no longer represents ME.
I hope that my partner will undertake
the difficult decision one day
to let me go.
To not cling to my body
and to embrace the life I have lived thus far.

I am not sure how you ask someone that.
"Before you say 'I do', I need to know you will."