The Calendar Chronicles
During my sister’s first marriage, I knew that she and her husband at the time were having problems because when I was at their home I saw that my sister was “keeping score” on the wall calendar: of events, he’d missed or times he’d been late. She’d write a snarky comment on the date. I said nothing because she wasn’t talking to me about it but they eventually divorced.
Her second marriage is to a wonderful man, an architect. In their second year of marriage, he took on a client that had him working long irregular hours and my sister was frustrated because he was never home and was missing family activities. I was over there for dinner one night and her husband was late again. My sister scrawled “late for dinner AGAIN!” on the calendar date and marched upstairs. I felt she was being irrational because her new husband was a great guy so I interfered for the first and only time ever in her adult life: I added “littlefoot352 was” in front of the “late for dinner AGAIN!” on the calendar.
When her husband came home I was sitting in the dining room by myself. I saw him look at the calendar, look at me, sigh and then take the pen and scribble it out completely and quickly. Then after saying hello he called my sister downstairs and presented her with the plans he’d drawn up for her dream kitchen. The project he’d been killing himself was so that he could afford the remodel…for her.
My sister later told me how overwhelmed she was that he forgave her for writing that comment in a fit of anger. She’ll never do it again.