Gurjeet Kaur Tiwana has seen many up and downs in her 29 years of marriage.
After 10 years of marriage, her husband Prabhdial Singh (Jaggi) had a stroke whilst taking a bath in the middle of a hot Indian summer. After this brain stroke, he became disabled for life.
“Jaggi is the ride of my life! He is too cute to be disabled,” said Ms Kaur in an interview with SBS Punjabi.
Gurjeet Kaur Tiwana migrated to New Zealand with her family in 1977.
She was nine years old when her family first arrived in New Zealand.
She did her schooling in Hamilton, a city in the Waikato region of New Zealand’s North Island.
Tiwana used to work as a nurse in an aged care facility at a local hospital in Hamilton.
A family photograph Source: Supplied
“I got married in 1988 in India to Jaggi back in Punjab. We have two sons, the first one born in 1989 and the second one in 1992,” she told SBS Punjabi.
“Our second son was born with Down syndrome, which is a genetic disorder typically associated with physical growth delays and mild to moderate intellectual disability.
“In 1991, my husband’s mum was diagnosed with cancer in India. So we all he decided to move back to Punjab to look after her.
“My mother-in-law passed away shortly after our return. The cancer was too difficult to cure.
“Jaggi is his parents’ only son. So we decided to stay at our ancestral home along with my father-in-law.
“Kids started school in Punjab and things were good until May 1998 when Jaggi had a stroke whilst taking a bath in the middle of a hot Indian summer,” she said.
Gurjeet and Jaggi's marriage portrait from 1988 Source: Supplied
“He was rushed to the hospital but by then it was too late and a lot of the damage had already happened to the brain.
“To this day, he is unable to walk, talk or do anything for himself.
“I happily do his everyday chores from feeding, bathing, dressing, grooming etc.
“Such is my love, devotion or the values that I had from both families.
In his youth, Jaggi was a keen singer and a big fan of Punjabi singer Kuldeep Manak and Gurdas Mann.
"Jaggi wishes to meet Gurdas Mann once. He had an ambition to record his own album. I really wish if God could still help him achieve his dream.
Ms Tiwana now manages the financials of her family that is living near a village in Jalandhar, Punjab. The family has a farming background.
Prabhdial Singh (Jaggi) is a big fan of Kuldeep Manak and Gurdas Mann Source: Supplied
"The kind of support I have from both my families esp my sisters in Hamilton, NZ is just overwhelming," said Ms Tiwana.
Ms Tiwana said that her Valentine’s Day message is very simple and straight forward, but at times it could be hard to complement.
“Trust and devotion are the two key things that could help our love-life breathe life-long. The relationships with ‘give and take’ type of chemistry sometime don’t work.”
“Our marriage was made in heaven. Jaggi is haven for my heart, a refuge for my soul.”
