When I had to leave town for work, I trusted my husband to look after my mother while she was fighting can.cer. But when I came home a day early and found her asleep on a thin mattress in the hallway, curled up under one blanket and shaking from the cold, I honestly thought I was seeing things. How could he do something so heartless?
I never imagined I’d be telling this story, but it still feels like a nightmare I can’t wake up from. I’m Shiloh, forty-one, married, with one daughter who just left for college. For the first time in years the house was quiet. I tried to enjoy the calm, smaller dinners, evening walks with Ward, but I missed the noise Dove used to bring into every room.
Then everything shattered. Mom was diagnosed with can.cer. She started chemo, and anyone who’s watched someone go through that knows how brutal it is.
I wanted to be the person she could lean on. I wanted her close, safe, cared for. So I told Ward I was bringing her to live with us for a while.
