Kim thought dying was the worst thing that could happen to her husband. Then he had a stroke.

It's March 26, 2015, and Kim Beyer is starting her day off as usual.

She's just put her newborn down for his first nap of the day and is now feeding her two-year-old breakfast in the kitchen.

Her husband, Matthias, gives her a kiss goodbye before running out the door to work.

Two hours later, Matthias' co-worker knocks on the front door and tells her that her husband "had come out of his office saying his head hurt, before hitting the floor and having a seizure."

Matthias was 35 years old, and he'd had the worst brain aneurysm their hospital in Columbus, Ohio, had seen in over 20 years.

"I took one look at him and I knew how bad it was," Kim, who was 32 at the time, recalled on TikTok. 

"He just looked like death, he's the wrong colour."

She was told it was unlikely her husband would survive and they would need to remove a big part of both his brain and his skull. 

He remained on life support for 10 days post-surgery, and family and friends came to visit to say their goodbyes.

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Kim knew from previous conversations with her husband that he wouldn't have wanted her to let him go. 

He wouldn't have wanted to stay in that in-between state of technically alive but not living.

She made the decision to turn off his life support, and was in discussions with the bank about what to do, as the couple were in the process of buying their first home.

Prior to Matthias' stroke, Kim herself had developed a severe case of rheumatoid arthritis. 

Matthias would often work from home to help her with the kids. 

"He would give me showers; he helps me get dressed; he would cook; he was my rock," she said.

The couple's rental home had a staircase that was too difficult for Kim to walk up and down, so they were buying something that would be easier to navigate.

Little did she know, he would need that too.

While at the bank, Kim received a phone call. Matthias was awake.

"People are screaming on the other end of the line that he's awake," she said. "I was about to go back to the hospital and pull the plug."

Kim returned to the hospital, excited to see her husband. He was a "vegetable".

Doctors told her that although Matthias was awake, he "would never be capable of meaningful human connection ever again".

They said he was probably blind, couldn't speak, read or write, and probably wouldn't be able to understand when she spoke to him.

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After weeks in the ICU, Matthias was transferred to a rehabilitation centre. 

After he had recovered to the point that he could breathe on his own and be upright, he did his final stretch of in-patient therapy.

He learned the basics again, like getting dressed, feeding himself, and reading at 35, while Kim learned how to support them. 

Their kids were involved as they got to know their dad post-aneurysm. 

"He progressed beyond anything the doctors had initially said was possible for him," she said.

But he was non-verbal for months. And when he did begin to speak, she knew he was no longer 'himself'.

"I knew that the guy I married was gone and that it was unlikely that I was going to get him back," she said.

Communicating with him was difficult, and Matthias would become fixated on things that were insignificant. 

His vocabulary was also smaller, so the things he wanted to do and talk about were limited.

She says they still talk regularly but they haven't had a real conversation since 2015.

"I'd fallen out of love with him, and that's okay. Love is not a feeling it's an action, it's a choice and I was trying to keep choosing him because it's not his fault," Kim said.

"This terrible thing happened to him and he couldn't do better. He couldn't change, it's a brain injury."

For the next seven years, Kim was either looking after her growing children or taking Matthias to his never-ending doctor's appointments and therapy sessions.

Her mum moved in to help, while Matthias' family did whatever they could but lived in Germany, and couldn't be there as easily.

They visited them a few times, and it became increasingly clear that they were better at looking after him. 

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Matthias' mum was a retired doctor, so she could take him to therapy, on walks, and help him at home – all the things Kim struggled to do while also raising their kids. 

"I remember a conversation he and I had shortly before his aneurysm," Kim recalled. 

"We're making our will, and he said if anything ever happened to him, he would want me and the kids to let him go and move on and have the best life possible," she said.

"I was so upset when he said that but he was so adamant and we thought about that the entire day.

"Looking back, I could never have imagined what our life would become."

Kim knew the best and most loving thing she could do for her husband was to let him go. She spoke with her family and his, and decided that it was obvious he should move back to Germany.

She also explained that the German government has a better system than the US, and Matthias could access assistance and resources they would have never been able to afford in America.

"Who am I to keep him from that?"

The "most loving thing she could do" was divorce him.

These days, Matthias hasn't had seizures for years. He still has double vision but wears glasses to help with that. 

He does all of his own grooming and cooking, and he and Kim talk most weekends.

Kim writes music, works as a delivery driver "which she loves" and their children have learned to be kids again.

They're visiting Germany later this year.

Feature image: Facebook/Kim Beyer.