The truth is, I couldn’t hear Will’s needs above the clamor of my own. I needed constant reassurance that my needs weren’t too much. When my needs did become too much, I made it impossible for him to take the breaks he so desperately needed. In those final months, whenever he accompanied me on yet another trip to the emergency room, the look on his face had been one of exhausted obligation. I took this as evidence that I was indeed a burden, and that he was biding his time until he could finally leave. But in the end, it wasn’t the illness that had driven him away; it was me. It was the
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