– I can’t even imagine how they’re going to live,” Susan says, “They’re a month behind on their loan payments, and they have to make their utility bills. I do not have anything to help them. I teach my youngest daughter at university. And you know what students have a scholarship. And who’s there to help? I give the last to my daughter and grandchildren, but my son-in-law is sickening to look at.
My eldest daughter Susan recently turned thirty-four and has been living with her husband for more than nine years. Both the daughter and her husband grew up in the same town, started dating after they finished their college education, and then they got married. Their little town is two hours away from the capital by train.
Susan works as a nurse in an infectious disease department. They have been working in a pinch for over a year. She barely crawls home and collapses without strength. Elizabeth and her husband Mark worked in the capital until recently.
– They got a good salary, says Susan, – but in our city you can’t find a normal job, and the pay is several orders of magnitude lower. And they have two children, and still need to pay the loan for the car. It is clear that it is not easy for them. They get home only after 8 p.m., and then they eat dinner, take a shower, and go to sleep. They get to work by train, it is more convenient, there are no traffic jams.
Elizabeth and her husband have two twin daughters. Granddaughters recently turned seven. My sister-in-law used to help my daughter and son-in-law, she would take the girls to kindergarten and pick them up, and even stay with them if they were sick. Everything was just fine…
– This summer my daughter’s mother-in-law broke her leg,” says Susan, “and it was so bad that she underwent two surgeries. Now her mother-in-law took her eldest daughter, who is now on maternity leave, and now she also has to look after her mother.
– What to do now with daughters? – Elizabeth was worried. – They go to school this year, and we have a job a mile away.
– I can’t quit my job just yet,” sighed Susan, “I work in shifts. But here everything sorted itself out. The situation at her daughter’s workplace has been very tense lately. The boss told two of her colleagues to write a letter of resignation. You know how things work these days: if you don’t leave voluntarily, they will treat you badly.
Elizabeth wrote her resignation because she knew that she would not be able to work from the beginning of September. She started looking for a job in our town, but it didn’t happen quickly, since the pandemic made work worth its weight in gold. She could only find shift work or low-paying jobs.
– I advised my daughter to take a break when her daughters went to school, let her adjust their schedules, and then start thinking about employment again. What has she seen in the last four years – only electric trains? There was no hope for my sister-in-law’s help, and even if she managed to recover, it would take more than one year. I told her at the time that you could stay home for a few months, and then you would find something.
At first Mark seemed to agree. Of course, now he’s the only breadwinner left, it won’t be easy for them, but there’s no way out. And then in early October he came home earlier than usual and told Elizabeth that he had written a letter of resignation, which the bosses signed without working.
– Did something happen to you? How are we going to live now? – Elizabeth didn’t even know what to ask her husband.
– No, I’m fine, and everything is fine at work, – her husband answered, – I’m tired, I’m worn out by these morning awakenings. I’m tired of my whole life on the road.
– What does it mean that he is tired of having to get up early! – says my mother-in-law. – And what is he going to eat? The daughter was fired, and she has two first graders, and what does the son-in-law have to do with it? What is he planning to do now? Lying on the sofa? What’s he going to pay the loan with? What are they going to live on? They haven’t got any savings, only forty thousand! That’s no money! And he refuses to look for a new job!
At first, my mother-in-law did not say anything to my son-in-law, she just watched in silence. She lost her nerve when her daughter came to borrow money for her daughters’ school supplies.
– So I called Mark up and asked him what are you going to live for, what are you going to feed your family with?
– And you mother-in-law better ask your daughter about that! – Mark cut me off. – She was allowed to quit her job and I was a slave?
– There’s a stone wall and a man’s shoulder to lean on. The daughter was fired, and he was offended. The daughter cried, because she did not expect her husband to do such a “manly” thing. Now I do not know how they will live? Elizabeth started looking for a job right away. I told her that I would feed her and her granddaughters, and her husband, a miser, let him make it on his own!
