Michael Bates: January 2023 Archives

My mother taught me never to depend on a man, and that failed me -- Kat Feeney -- Brisbane Times

Kat Feeney writes: "I gave up my sleep to give the baby hers. I wiped up vomit with one hand while holding a writhing, wet, sneezing body with the other, having not properly washed myself since yesterday. I carried an aching back and the bewildering burden. But I didn't have to. There he was, the man I married, the father of our child, ready, able, willing to be exactly what he should be; my partner. And there I was, stopping him. Preventing him. Pushing him away. Why? Because accepting his help would be like admitting defeat.

"'Never depend on a man.' My mother's mantra. The foundation of a philosophy that had brought me a lot of success, but now threatened to destroy me, and my marriage, and the beauty I wanted to give to my child."