RelationshipsSeptember 29, 2017September 29, 2017

That Bitter Woman

by Iman Ben Chaibah

Recounting an incident of someone’s bitterness and showing the other side of the story and why some people act so unpleasantly.

We all know that bitter woman. The spiteful one, who exudes evilness and is never happy for anyone else. The negative one who is not just catty, but puts extra effort to be nasty to others that she might as well be dressed as a witch.
I know her too. She has been my colleague, my classmate, my neighbor and sometimes my friend.
Recently, a photo circulated on social media of a car’s rear window, but instead of the typical ‘baby on board’ sign, this one read “I love my wife”. I was chatting with my friend about this sign only to be taken aback by her spiteful reaction towards the male driver. She cursed him and kept reiterating: ‘liar, fake, all men are untrustworthy.’ Those words did not startle me as much as the memory of who she was years ago.
Would you believe that this same woman, spitting venomous words was once kindhearted, joyful, and spread light everywhere she went?
I felt a pang of sadness seeing who she has become. When did this crust of darkness cover the light within her heart?
I guess we have to go back 17 years in the past. It was a love so beautiful and rare to stumble up. She loved and trusted him wholeheartedly. After their marriage, she gave up a full-time job to raise their five children in good health, spending years instilling good values in them. She educated herself on how to be the perfect wife. All was well, until the day she found out the man who was the air her lungs breathed was cheating on her with a much younger woman. And not just that. There was also another wife and child in another country that he regularly traveled to.
Her world came tumbling down, and the million shattered pieces of her heart were too numerous to mend. She had walked on solid ground for 17 years only to be pulled by the ankles by the person she trusted above all. Something so beautiful in her heart simply died.
She suddenly started weeping and repeating: “My only mistake is that I loved him too much”. And how could I patronize her for that? I did not wish to be like everyone else and chastise her. Neither did I expect her to turn a blind eye to all that has happened. That day I allowed her to vent bitterly. I even joined in and mocked the sign board myself.
I know this bitter woman too, and now I understand why she changed after being hurt. That cut in her heart bled so much and turned her into a hopeless bitter human. Her traumatic past has changed her so much that most people no longer recognized her old self.
But I remember her beautiful soul that once was and secretly pray that one day she gets over this and heals her bleeding heart. If only others understood her as well.