My Parent's Reconciliation Vacation (excerpt from Proverbial Woman), Part IX

I’m dealing with it also. I believe love takes us through these hard times to strengthen us. I now understand why some of us win, while others lose,” she reasoned. “But with what we’ve been going through, I couldn’t see if either one of us were winning or losing. But when you made up your mind to call me I after what I’d done. I knew then what we had is worth fighting for. I knew then we were gaining something far greater than what we ever had. Only you alone have captured my heart, Timothy Romero. But I know ultimately, it is your heart that will suffer.”

“What do you mean?” he inquisitively asked.

“Although my love for you is strong, I could never love you the way you love me,” she replied with a despondent look in her eyes, “That is what balances the scale.”

“What scale?” he asked.

“The scale that measure the inequality of our love.”

“What are you talking about?” he asked, drawing a serious look on his face.

“Okay, now lets look at this way,” she quickly answered. “Now take yourself for instance. You’ve always been a faithful man. And one of integrity. And I know you wouldn’t dare jeopardize losing something of value to you. Which I’ve always admired those qualities in you. But they are the opposite of my father’s. And I’m more like my father. But you…you have those qualities that are similar to my mother’s. After becoming your wife and watching you over the years, it occurred to me that it has always been she that was the stronger soul of the two of them. And of course we’ve both have always known who has been the strongest between the two of us.

What I’ve learned from my parent’s marriage, and from our own, is that sometimes the one who is viewed as the weaker half could very well turn out to be the one who has the true strength. My father needed my mother. He needed someone who was stronger in will that could love him through his impetuous shortcomings as a man. And she took on that responsibility.

He needed someone that could truly accept him for what he was, a man of contrary, one of wayward sins like myself,” she sadly remarked. “But my mother, she was his rock…an anchor that kept him from totally losing himself out there. That is what you are to me. And sometimes we all need someone to come home to, especially when the heart loses its way.”

“Why didn’t they try marriage counseling? Therapy?” he asked.

“Therapy never cures, it only treats the symptoms. If you’re determined, it may bring some closure. But even that is not guaranteed,” she replied as she glared into the candlelight.

“You know, in a twisted sort of way.