and this, is what it looks like, for the vast majority of people out there…
Weekend has a different meaning for this woman, because instead of being able to relax and take a break, she’s still, working endlessly, for the sake of her marriage and family, translated…
After five on Friday afternoon, the atmosphere at the office became filled, with this celebratory mood, ushering in the weekends. The five days’ worth of hard work had finally, come to an end, I’d glanced over at my coworker’s computer, it’d already become changed into the website of having fun, places to visit, places to dine at, from the office documents, and, she’s already, looking forward to, going to the beer house after work, the American-style breakfast on Saturday morn after she wakes up, and the Sunday afternoon session at the spa. And, everybody started counting down, to the moment of clocking out, started chit-chatting with people in the next cubicles about which place had the best spaghetti, where they’re taking the kids tomorrow.
And still, Mei-Yu never belonged to this bunch in a celebratory mood, every Friday before work was over, she’d slowed her progress at work down even more, without the expectancy of a beautiful weekend, or the need to rush to escape from the office. Seeing the joyous celebration at the office, she’d not danced along with the rest of the coworkers, instead, she’d carried that gloom about her, told, “Why rush home? Don’t you get to go home, every single day? Is the workplace really that annoying?”, and Mei-Yu became, an outcast of the group.
Observing the events at the office, as everybody else is celebrating the oncoming weekend off, it’d made, Mei-Yu feel annoyed. And, every Friday became, the longest day of overtime that she puts in every single week. And, nobody can understand, which nine-to-fiver wouldn’t like the weekends? Working nine-to-five is hard! Later on, we’d learned, that the weekends, are truly, not expectant for Mei-Yu. Because on the days she’s off, she had to rush to the nursing home in the south, to take care of her husband who’d had a stroke; and, after she’d driven hours to the home, she’d needed to tailor to her husband’s needs every single second of every day, changing his diapers, clean up the bedpans, changing the sheets, shopping for the medical needs, picking up the newly prescribed meds, along with the daily necessities, she’d worked all day long on the weekends, that she’d not even have a few moments, to doze off.
Running in and out, married for decades, Mei-Yu had taken it as natural, although she’d not have any intentions of abandoning her ill husband, but her ill husband’s mood swings, he’d gotten moody, and agitated easily, and the bad mouthing off toward her, for Mei-Yu, who’s worried about money and work, it’d become, her heaviest burdens.
Getting older and staying in love, Mei-Yu is filled with a mixture of emotions, having her husband, accompany her for a meal on the weekends, had become, a wish she’d not dreamed about having. As the weekends came to an end, she’d still had to, take that long ride back up to the north; being strained in the body and the mind, she’d longed to, return to the office, having her regular workdays, that, was the only way that Mei-Yu can feel relaxed.
And tonight is another Friday night again, as everybody looks forward to the weekend, I’d finally understood why, Mei-Yu feels depressed now.
And so, weekends for some means days off, going wild for two days, relaxation, but not for this woman, who’d had to, go to the nursing care facility, to take care of her ill husband, and, that, is why she’d disliked her weekends, because it doesn’t symbolize rest and having time to herself, it meant working even harder.