With the passing on of one’s mother, the shape of a family changes abruptly. The children are in shock, and the father, even though he’s expected to be strong, is most of the time bewildered.  With time, the pain might be dulled, but the grief resurfaces from time to time over the years

a) Always look on  the  dark side of life. See the glass as half empty rather than full,    regard changing   circumstances   as    disasters    rather   than opportunities, always expect things to go wrong, and your negativity will remain intact.

For all you know, such `husbands’ are either non-existent or are out with other interesting `discoveries’. No matter what criticisms you have against this type of freedom, it is still good for the female psyche. You go out to let off seam and not necessarily to be mischievous as most men want to believe”.

“It was a most heart-wrenching experience dolling out retrenchment letters and watching the bleak expressions on the faces of staff who have lost their jobs”, she said sadly.  A few weeks later, I was her turn to get the dreaded `golden handshake’

“Only three short years after marriage, I sat on my favourite chair, the radio blaring music that was meaningless to me. Then, all of a sudden, this tune came on and all I could hear of the music was  the singer’s constant refrain: “Where is the love that you promised me?” The single might as well be echoing my thoughts, and I sat thee, too numb to think.  I shed all the tears there were to shed. The future looked bleak, and my husband was somewhere else living with a woman who wasn’t free to marry him.