There are times when she wasn’t sure what to do anymore. Her children were grown and visited her less and less. They listened to anything she had to say with distressingly less regularity. Her husband had grown distant, only coming to see her maybe once or twice a month. During months that held anniversaries like their marriage or one of their birthdays, she’d see him a third time, but no more during any of their children’s or grandchildren’s birthdays. She didn’t even see him at night anymore as he had started sleeping in a separate room, something that had been unthinkable until just four years ago.
She wasn’t even certain of when it started happening. He’d been working longer, but only one night every now and then at first. It had slowly grown from once a month to maybe three or four times a month and then several times a week.
Then, one day, she woke up and realized that her husband hadn’t shared her bed, not even just for sleeping, in over a year.
Then she realized that not only did she wake up to his side of the bed cold and untouched but she didn’t even get to see his face during the day, never mind getting to see him smile.
She was a stranger to the man that she’d pledged her everything to and he was a stranger to her.
“How did it come to this, my dear?” she whispered into his pillow from where it was pressed into her face.
It had long since stopped smelling liking him.
Breathing In 