My friend can't work anymore because his wife is so sick that he needs to be there for her all the time. Their house is paid for, but they have other living expenses, of course. He's 60. He lost his job because the company failed, and hasn't found anything in years. But steadily he's picked up a set of several odd jobs related to his expertise and has a reasonable income. This has been building slowly for a couple of years to the point where he's able to take care of his wife and still earn enough of a living.
It's been a hard time for both of them. She's a heart patient with diabetes and kidney problems and has been living without a knee cap because they tried to replace the joint and it got so infected that they had to remove it. Some weeks she's in a hospital or clinic or therapy or dialysis or some combination of these things every day. It has left him little time to focus on earning, but he manages somehow anyway.
One of his jobs is teaching music, so when he started that, I thought it would be a good time to learn music. Been studying with him for over a year now, and it's been good for me and it's helped him a little too.
These serious health problems for her have been getting worse for years. She's almost died a couple of times. He has always been there for her. It takes quite a man to give it all up and focus on his wife like that. He never complains. But sometimes he says something that shows how scared he gets for her well being.
