Justifying When an Affair IS For the Greater Good
Sometimes it isn’t what you think
I know, I know — if I were a puritan woman I’d be whipped at a cart’s tail or sporting a deliciously crimson A on my indigo-dyed wool shift.
But this isn’t the late 16th century and I am not Hester Prynne. This is 2021 and I am a highly sexual 48-year-old woman choosing confinement in a sexless marriage. Some people call my boyfriend-on-the-side a disgusting affair while others applaud my thinking-outside-the-box because the box I’m satiating is my own.
The background
Let me explain. About four years ago at age 47, my husband was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. Due to family history, we had been on high alert. Everything became suspect from the time he forgot how to locate his best friend’s house to the moment he tried to remove his underwear without first taking off his pants.
Here we are four years later and my husband does little more at home than stare at his phone screen and exist. Without someone directly beside him, he doesn’t shower, the recycling box ends up hidden in the basement, and dirty dishes get put back in the cupboard between clean ones.
Our conversations consist of repeated questions, mainly about the weather or how we slept. He has taken to…
