It was a sunny fall afternoon in Divine, Illinois, a reconstructed area located 15 miles west of Chicago. Del Green decided to take advantage of the mild conditions and pick up the leaves in his yard. While raking, the slim and tall, clean cut laborer realized that he needed another bag to gather the massive pile of leaves he had just raked. As he ran inside the garage to grab another bag, a car drove too close to the curb and destroyed the pile. Upon his return, he noticed the mess and thought to himself, “Del, get the bag first, and then rake the leaves.” Inside the house, his wife, Toni, sat at the kitchen table. She was looking at the bills that had piled up over the month. After realizing the amount of money it would take to pay the gas, electric, phone, mortgage, insurance, dental and credit cards, she slammed the statements on the table and went to look for Del. She saw that Del was outside raking leaves when he should have been in the house helping her deal with the bills. Toni thought to herself, “I am tired of this Del. You have to do more to contribute around here.”
When Del finished, he entered the his 3000sq.ft. Ranch Style home and greeted his wife. He quickly noted her frustrated expression, and slowly walked towards the refrigerator to grab a bottle of water. As he sipped on his water, he asked Toni what was bothering her. “Del, I am tired of living like this. I cannot accept this stress any longer. I carry the financial burden in this house, and it just isn’t right.” Del responded, “Baby, you know that I only have one semester left before I finish my degree. When I am a RN, things will get better. Right now, I just cannot work full-time and complete the clinical practice at the same time. We’ve been over this before. You make it sound like I don’t want to support us, but everything I’m doing right now is going to give us a better future.” “I know that Del, but I’m not happy anymore. Since we’ve been married, we have not done anything as a couple, as you promised we would. We never go out to the movies, a concert, a club, or anywhere else. We need a vacation. I can’t even get you to go out for a walk with me.” “That’s a lie, I have asked you to go for a walk before, but you always have some excuse. Either it is too cold, or too hot, or you are too tired or you just had your
