YOUR SECRETS FIND A HOME • YOUR JOURNEY IS PRIVATE • YOUR WORDS ARE SAFE • YOUR SECRETS FIND A HOME • YOUR JOURNEY IS PRIVATE • YOUR WORDS ARE SAFE • YOUR SECRETS FIND A HOME • YOUR JOURNEY IS PRIVATE • YOUR WORDS ARE SAFE • YOUR SECRETS FIND A HOME • YOUR JOURNEY IS PRIVATE • YOUR WORDS ARE SAFE •
The WeightGuilt

I resent my disabled husband

Dear Delyara, My husband was paralysed in an accident four years ago. I love him. I also resent him, which feels like a confession no decent wife should make. I resent the lifting equipment, the appointments, the forms, the adaptations, the way every holiday begins with accessibility research, and the way friends praise me for being devoted while asking him about his courage. I resent that his accident became our shared life sentence although only one of us receives sympathy for it. Last night, he asked whether I was tired, and I said no because honesty would have sounded like blame. Then he dropped a glass, and I cried while cleaning it. He apologised for being a burden. I told him he was not. That was both true and untrue. He is my husband, not a burden. The care is heavy. I do not know how to separate the person from the weight without hurting him. Guilt has made me tender in front of him and furious in private. I am afraid resentment will eventually speak through a tone I cannot take back.

ANONYMOUS