I’m Kana. My husband Masato and I live with our three kids—Yuma (13), Rei (10), and Takuto (7). Life is a blur with both of us working full-time, but my husband is a devoted dad—always hands-on and endlessly patient. Whenever he has a free moment, he spends it with the kids. The three of them bicker now and then, but they’re close. Yuma dotes on his little brother Takuto, and sometimes Rei jumps in to play too. Masato would always watch them with this peaceful, happy smile on his face.
He loved watching the kids laugh and play together. Maybe it was because he was an only child—he seemed to have a special longing for that kind of sibling bond. Then one day, we got news that my mother-in-law had been diagnosed with a serious illness. Being an only child, Masato couldn’t just stand by and do nothing. People are often surprised when I tell them I’ve never once been to my in-laws’ house since getting married. But we’ve kept in touch—they’d visit us occasionally, and the kids got along with them just fine. I actually liked that comfortable distance—close enough to stay connected, but not so close it felt suffocating. Still, with my mother-in-law’s illness, I couldn’t help but wonder if that balance was about to change.