A Story About Marriage and Silence

This is a real story. A glimpse into what men actually carry in silence.
I share it because it needs to exist somewhere, not just in the mind of the man who lived it.

Every word appears here with his full permission and respect.

Michael and his wife used to love each other.
It was the kind of love people spend their whole lives hoping to find once.
She stayed through the cancer, through the months he couldn't work, through the fear that lived in every scan. He still remembers her hand in his during chemo, the way she never looked away.

Somewhere along the way, they drifted apart. He pulled away and she got tired.

The kindness never left.
Their love became polite.
They share the house but not the lives.

He moves between two worlds. At home, there's history, outside he feels alive.
The past feels too heavy to leave, the future too uncertain to step into.
He's scared of losing both.

Most nights he is at home. Still married. Still unsure. Still known by half.

I hear stories like this all the time. Yours may sound different.
But if you carry one, it deserves a space to be spoken into.