Our Housekeeper Told Me My Husband Was Hiding Something in the Basement – When I Finally Got In, I Cried Like Never Before

The accident which deprived me of walking skills ruined my life. I also believed that I was a burden in a wheelchair although my husband never made me feel that way. However, one day our housekeeper told us that he was concealing something in our basement. I believed that my heart could not endure another stroke. I was mistaken.

I am Kate and eight months ago, my life just ceased to be the way I knew it. One moment I was riding my bike through Millbrook downtown on a Tuesday afternoon, with the wind blowing in my hair, and the next thing I was looking at a hospital ceiling and could not feel anything below my waist. A drink driver had knocked a red light and made my world a place I could not recognize.

Your spine is Boo-hoo damaged, Dr. Peterson had said in a gentle but firm voice. We have to be ready to tell you that you may not have a future of walking, Kate.

I recall how my husband Daniel was holding my hand so tight that I believed he would crack my fingers. And still I think something changed between us even in that sterile room with machines beeping all around us. Not his love… that had not gone, it remained firm and kind.

But not only that. SomeTHING that caused him to regard me differently, as though I were made of glass now.

This is something we will work out, he whisperer against my forehead that night. Anything to do it.

But the process of solving it set in as Daniel worked more, arrived home when I was already asleep, and initiated the habit of kissing my cheek, instead of my lips.

It became individual bedrooms and cautious discussions of whether I wanted anything in the kitchen before he retired up stairs.

When I questioned him why he shifted to the guest room, he would reply, “I do not want to mess up your sleep. You must have your sleep.

My husband was what I needed. But I nodded and smiled since what could I do?

And three months after this new reality, Daniel shocked me with Martha. She was about 60, with nice eyes and soft hands, and she appeared at our door on a Monday morning with a thermos of coffee and a smile that looked familiar like my grandma.

What can I do to help you, dear, she said, as she sat down in the chair beside my wheelchair. What about cooking and cleaning or even sitting with you, is that what you want?

Martha turned out to be my lifeline on these lengthy days when Daniel was at work. She never spoke to me as though I was inferior or defective. We used to watch old movies together and she would tell me the stories about her grandchildren when folding laundry or washing the dishes.

However, on one Tuesday afternoon everything was changed.

I have been sitting in the living room, attempting to concentrate on a book I had read twice before, when Martha entered the door. She had a pale face and was wringing her hands as though she was drying them.

Daniel was lying out in the backyard pool, his arms open and his eyes shut in the sun. He was having a day off.

Martha sank down slowly in the arm chair opposite me.

Honey, said she, her voice was soft and shaky, Kate. There is something I want to say to you… and I do not know how to begin.”

I squeezed my stomach and shut the book.

What is it?

“This morning… I arrived a bit early. Perhaps about seven-thirty. Thought I would get the breakfast on before you woke up.

She gazed at her hands and wringed her fingers in her lap. I never saw Martha so nervous.

I noticed that Daniel was coming up the basement. He appeared surprised at my appearance. And he was all sweaty, as though he had been working down there hard. And he– he locked the door.”

I drew myself up. He shut it? That’s weird. He does not lock the basement.”

Martha paused, and then she stared me in the eye.

“Kate… I thought I heard a woman down in the basement….

The book fell down my laps and dropped with a soft thud on the floor. I could hear the buzzing of my ears. And I thought I was dreaming a moment.

The voice of a woman?

Martha nodded minutely. I was not dreaming. I heard what I heard. I do not want to cause trouble. but you have a right to know.”

It was like my chest was too tight and I could not get a deep breath.

The remainder of the day I could not think or sit down.

Whenever I closed my eyes, I would picture Daniel laughing with another person, touching her, and kissing her neck. It broke my heart to think of him with one who could stand and dance and move. Not me, someone who…

Some time in the afternoon he would come in with wet hair and a towel thrown over his shoulder. He was still wet and glistening with the pool and a trail of water followed him across the floor with his swim trunks.

He bent and kissed me on the forehead. Not mine lips. Of late my lips never.

How is your book? he asked.

Well, said I, watching him. What was the pool like?

He shrugged, and wiped his neck with the towel. “Relaxing. before dinner I think I will have a nap.”

“Daniel?”

He hesitated in the door. “Yeah?”

And do you still love me?

Naturally I do! Why–why should I ask it?

He did not wait, however, to hear my reply. He was already on his way to the stairs… already going.

I spent that night awake, looking at the ceiling and hearing the words of Martha played in my mind: A woman-s voice. It was the basement that was locked. The secret key.”

I needed to understand.

The following morning Daniel went to work, and I rolled myself to Martha in the kitchen.

Did you know where he placed the key?

Slowly she nodded. It is in the ceramic vase on the hall table.

I was trembling and we approached the basement door. The key was right where Martha had told it would be, and I was holding it so hard the metal edges were piercing my palm.

Do you really think you want to do this, dear? Martha asked.

I stared at the basement door, which was blue and nondescript as though it had nothing to conceal. Behind it either was the end of my marriage or the start of realization as to why my husband had been backing off.

I must.

Martha assisted me into a chairlift Daniel had put in months before, and followed me down the stairway which was narrow. The basement was very dark, however, I could see there was light somewhere inside the room.

I tumbled slowly along, my heart beating against my ribs. What was I going to find? Another woman? Clue of an affair? Some love life he had been leading and I had been sitting up here feeling sorry myself?

However, I totally lost it when I got to the central part of the basement and saw what it contained.

The whole basement was changed into what I had never thought before. There were parallel bars that were placed on a wall at varying heights. The corners were full of exercise equipment I was familiar with given physical therapy. There were foam mats on the floor and resistance bands on hooks on the ceiling.

Yet it was the far wall that had me sob till I could not breathe.

There was a mural somewhere of a field of sunflowers growing towards a clear blue sky, painted by somebody. My flower, the one Daniel used to bring me every Friday during our dating. The one that was in my wedding bouquet. The one I had not saw in months since I could not get to the flower shop any more.

“Vaaa! Oh my God!” Behind me Martha whispered.

There was a small changing room in the corner with medical devices and a name tag on a hook: Sophie -Physical Therapist.

It was not the voice of the woman Martha had heard at all.

Footsteps on the stairs made me hear, still crying. Daniel had come out, still in his work clothes, and when he saw me his face turned white.

“Kate? I have come to get my laptop. Wait… how come you are here? This was intended to be a surprise.”

“A surprise?” I managed to speak scarcely through my tears.

He hastened round, and knelt down by my wheelchair, holding my hands in his. As our anniversary next week. I have been working with Sophie months now, preparing everything. The apparatus, the room… and the program she has especially prepared you.”

But why never told me?

The tears came into his eyes. So that you would not think I was pushing you. Or that I would not love what you are now. But Kate, I watch you sacrificing a little more each day, and I cannot merely stand by and see it happen.”

He pointed to the room in which we were. It is not that I need you to walk again. It is simply about providing you with all opportunities to fight in case you wish to do so. Sophie believes that you really have a chance to recover, but only when you are ready to do it.”

I looked at this man I had married, the man I had been so certain was drawing away and I saw I had been mistaken in everything. He hadn t been keeping out of my way… he had been preparing us.

I wondered you were–I whispered, guilty and hurt,–having an affair.

Daniel crashed. Kate, no, God, no. I never… You are everything to me. You have always been. I do love you. Only you!”

This happened half a year ago.

Sophie came three times a week, and I can tell you that woman was as solid as boot leather. She drove me to the point of tears, shouting… and to the point of quitting. But whenever I saw those sunflowers on the wall I was reminded of what I was fighting about.

“Feel that?” When I could get my toe to move a fraction of an inch, Sophie would ask. That is your body knowing how to live.

Daniel attended as many of my sessions as he could, encouraging me on my progress and embracing me on the times I relapsed. And I fell a good deal. But I got up every time.

I made my first step three weeks ago. Only one, but I did. I crossed the basement last week, without touching anything.

and tonight I am wearing the black dress that has been hanging in my closet unaided these eight months, the one I never expected to wear again. Since Tonight, Daniel and I will be entering into Romano Restaurant hand in hand, our candlelit dinner.

Now, when I reflect on these last few months, I understand that the most frightening moment was not the loss of the use of my legs. it was nearly giving up on the man who loved me well enough to make me a room of hope when I could think of no hope myself.

Trust does not only mean believing that your partner will not hit you. It is the feeling that they will stand up on your behalf even at the time when you are not able to fight your own battles. There was no moment that Daniel gave up the fight, even at the time when I wanted to give up.

and tomorrow Sophie and I begin to train hurtling towards something she terms my graduation goal. She refuses to tell me what it is, but Daniel will have this smile on his face whenever she talks about it.

I think I am going to like the surprise.