“You do not have money, Mikel.”
“That’s because you spend it before I make it.”
Mikel had no money besides his substantial earnings. He told her if she was truthful, she should take her name off the credit cards and the house, calling his wife a gold digger keeping him broke and spending all his earnings.
The fight escalated. Scorched with the hurt of indignation, Salma sobbed while Mikel accused her of ruining him financially. They had this argument several times before. The angry blood burned in his face making him bitter while she cried, without hope. He reminded her, she contributed nothing to the household, that she was not helping and how sick and tired he was of supporting her.
Salma so wanted but could not, remind Mikel that she worked while he went to school. That she typed his Masters on a typewriter, and his Doctorate on a word processor in the old days. She could not remind him that she was there all along when he only made $300 a month as they worked together to build their future. The distraught woman did not remind him, that she worked in a sewing factory in the South while he went to school, supporting his studies while avoiding worries about food and rent. Low and unthinkable reminding him that she worked as an evening waitress after their first born; so she could attend her child during the day and not resort to a sitter.
Excerpt from Caring For Eleanor