No one told her how to be married to a memory.

Lisa followed every instruction.
 She took notes in the hospital.  
Read the discharge binder.  
Set alarms.
Prepped meals.
Kept the appointments.

But there was one thing the binder never explained:  
How to be a wife when the man you love stops trying.

He shrugs when she asks about therapy.  
Zips his jacket but not his motivation.  
Tunes out during appointments.  
Avoids eye contact when she brings up the hard stuff.

She’s pushing him toward recovery—  
all while still grocery shopping,
handling the paperwork,
and covering both ends of the rope.

“It feels like I want him to get better more than he does.”  
She hasn’t said it out loud. But she feels it—deeply.

She tries to follow every instruction.
But none of it tells her how to grieve the life that vanished without warning.  
She’s not just carrying him.  
She’s carrying the ghost of the life they planned.
And she’s terrified it’s never coming back.

It’s not just the words that are gone.  
It’s the spark.
The effort.
The sense of we.

And quietly, Lisa wonders:  
What happens if I can’t carry both of us anymore?

Across town, Elena’s story started the same.  
But one morning, she made a different kind of choice.