A while ago, I was invited to a very different well-spouse support group meeting. Their guest that month, was an amateur cartoonist who was also a member of the clergy. Trained in counseling, he spent the first half of the meeting discussing the feelings of the group: What were some of the experiences they had difficulty with? How did they feel most of the time? What would they change if they could? Experiences were shared to highlight what brought about these feelings. The guest then took a few minutes and came up with the following cartoon. The group couldn’t get over how he had totally captured their emotions in a few cartoons, as they faced life as well spouses. Above is a picture of a well spouse. The cartoonist called it “Deep Pockets”. The well spouses in the group felt the emotions on the woman’s face totally captured the confusion, pain and unhappiness in trying to deal with all the things they have to endure and yet, somehow showed a determination as well. They also felt the pockets, labelled by the artist, captured what they were dealing with daily. This was a woman’s group, and so all the well spouses, whom the artist met with, were women. When I showed the cartoons to a men’s group they felt it captured their feelings as well. We then talked a bit about each “pocket.” Some of the spouses had never thought about many of the emotions listed. In fact, one woman noted that some of the emotions listed were gleaned from the stories and hadn’t been mentioned specifically at all. Desire was one such example. They felt it was open ended enough to range from desiring a different life and different history (one without illness) to other forms of desire, of which they chose not to speak. They commented that some things were just too painful to put into words. But, they definitely felt that desire had a rightful place among the pockets. Aging was another pocket that the artist captured. No one remembered talking about aging per se, but the sense of life lost, never to be relived differently or recaptured, was certainly reflective of their feelings. They wondered how their lives would have gone if chronic illness had never come into their homes. Some felt they would have divorced, if the illness hadn’t changed everything. Others felt their lives would have been more full of joy and happiness. Loneliness was a scenario that had been touched on, literally, in everyone’s stories. That was also true for worry, as it was a shadow that was with them always. Worry about bills, their own health, their spouses deterioration, the future and on and on. Humor surprised most of the support group, until the artist reflected back to them, how much they laughed that night and how much it must be a coping mechanism in their lives. Or, he thought, perhaps humor was a relief that could only surface in the safety, confidentiality and understanding that a support group naturally provides. Anger was clear, but identity was not. He told us that the stories had reflected to him, a confusion of identity: wife and nurse, caregiver and our own need to have someone to depend on, parent and child, spouse and custodian of basic needs (feeding, dressing etc). Needing to assume the role of everyone and do everything a home needs, was something everyone identified with. And so, the expectation, necessity and demand to be a “Jill of all trades.” Embarrassment was a bit more difficult, as we all began to realize how much of what we do, what we are forced to do, the behavior we observe every day by ourselves, by our spouses and by our very situation, is often embarrassing to us. I felt an immediate bond with these woman. I was overwhelmed by their honesty with strangers (the cartoonist and myself) and their openness to face emotions that they had hidden for so long and were forced to be reflective of that night. I hope that sharing it with you furthers an understanding of what well spouses deal with. I am also sure that no matter what your situation may be, there are parts of this drawing that you too can identify with.
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