It was Jessica and Adam’s twentieth wedding anniversary, but the woman still woke up in the morning undermined and irritable. Could it be any other way? After all, for all the 20 years Jessica had been her husband’s wife, she’d been pulling everything on herself. She goes to work, and does needlework to make extra money.
Every day Jessica was doing a general cleaning in the apartment, because her husband was a military man – there must always be perfect order everywhere. Every day a lot of laundry, and although the house had a washing machine, it was Jessica’s job to wring and hang up the laundry, and then take it off and iron it. When their daughter Julia was in school, Jessica sat down with her every night to do her homework, because if a child is not given enough attention at this time – it is unlikely that he will be successful later. Unlike Adam, Jessica was very worried about her daughter’s life. A happy woman is the one who can provide for herself and does not need any handouts from her husband.
Julia is grown-up now, she is studying at university, she lives separately from her parents and rents an apartment. It is easier for a woman to do laundry, and there is less need for cooking. But still all the housework was left to her. No matter how many conversations Jessica had with Adam about the fact that a man should help his wife, the man always stood his ground. The answer was always the same: you are a woman and you should. And what does a man have to do? Go to work and lie on the couch and sleep? That’s a great idea, isn’t it?
Even on weekends a woman had no peace of mind. She had to visit her parents, go shopping, buy groceries, bring them home. And the bags are, oh, so heavy. Adam never went out with his wife. Why should he? It’s Saturday, his day off. He can’t store if he wants to sleep. And that Saturday, Adam didn’t go with his wife again. Although Jessica got up in the morning, felt sick, told Adam about it, asked him to help her. But the man pretended he had not heard his wife and continued to sleep peacefully. It was not the first time she had dragged heavy bags – and this time she will bring it, Adam thought to himself through sleep.
In the meantime the woman had packed and was already outside when she got a sharp pain in the head, the whole left side of her body went numb, she fell down and then lost consciousness. She had had a stroke from overwork, from the heavy burden on her frail, female shoulders. That morning was the last time Adam saw his wife alive. No more Jessica, rest in peace.
But Adam now goes to her grave every day at the cemetery, weeping bitter tears that he did not appreciate her, that he did not keep her safe, that he was wrong. They should have shared the burden of life between them, they would have lived together to a ripe old age, but now they are alone. A woman cannot live two lives at the same time, her own and her husband’s.
