The following week, he paid for laundry and ironing.
Then he began ordering prepared meals because cooking after work exhausted him.
For the first time, Robert was paying strangers to do the work I’d done without a salary or a single word of thanks.
But the real turning point came on the twentieth day.
Emily visited him and found him sitting at the kitchen table, staring at an old notebook.
It was mine.
For years, I’d used it to organize the household.
Every page contained ordinary things.
Monday: Wash bedding. Clean bathrooms. Grocery shopping. Prepare dinner.
Tuesday: Vacuum bedrooms. Iron shirts. Pay electricity bill. Clean refrigerator.
Wednesday: Wash towels. Change bedsheets. Prepare meals for the week.
There were appointments, birthdays, shopping lists, reminders, and notes about his mother’s care.
Robert turned page after
page.
Years of invisible work, written in my handwriting.
At the back, he found an entry I’d written six months earlier.