I have lived alone these days since Joyce’s passing months ago.
I have come to realize how strong women are since living without one in my daily life. Women cook, clean, work, care for children and take care of men. That’s a tall order and yet they do it willingly and with great love.
Being alone these days all of those things (except caring for children) now rest on me. Yesterday I mopped all the floors, vacuumed the carpets, did all the laundry, including the bed linens and towels, cooked, washed dishes, dusted, cleaned toilets and emptied the trash. That took a huge chunk out of my day, not that my days are so jam-packed lately. I still found time for a cold beer, or maybe it was two or three. I mean really, who’s counting but me and I don’t have much short term memory.
I wrapped up my work and as I sat down I remembered one thing Joyce said. It went something like this; as soon as you finish all of the housework all of that slips away as soon as someone walks across the kitchen floor. I thought about that every time I criss-crossed that kitchen getting something to eat or grabbing a beer. The floor was not as clean as when I finished mopping it, I dirtied dishes and utensils. I had put on fresh clothes, making more dirty laundry; I had laid down on my freshly washed bed linens, made more trash to take out in a day or two, there were already footprints in the vacuumed carpets. I had already sowed the seeds for the next cleanup. My work will never end until I end. Apparently retirement simply means that my job didn’t end, it just changed.
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