When I first noticed my wife, Sarah, making small tally marks on her hand, I thought it was just a quirky reminder system. But as the marks multiplied and she dodged my questions, my curiosity turned into unease. I finally discovered she kept a notebook filled with these tallies, yet she still refused to explain. The mystery started weighing on our marriage.
The answer came unexpectedly during a visit to her mother’s house. I found another notebook — identical to Sarah’s — but with tallies labeled for things like “interrupting” and “forgetting to call.” When I confronted Sarah later, she admitted the marks were for me. Every tally represented a time I broke one of my wedding vows — interrupting her, not listening, or failing to keep a promise. She had decided that when I reached 1,000 tallies, she would leave.
Shaken, I called her mother, who revealed she once did the same in her own marriages — and it destroyed them. She urged me to focus on counting good moments instead. That night, Sarah and I had an emotional talk, and she agreed the tally marks were hurting us both more than helping.
We threw away the old notebooks and started a new one — this time, to record happy memories and kind gestures. Over time, it became a record of laughter, gratitude, and love. The tallies were gone, but what we built in their place felt stronger than ever.