Women, Always Sleep by Your Husbands’ Side, By Mairo Muhammad Mudi

In recent months, a series of heartbreaking incidents has compelled me to pick up my pen and speak directly to my fellow married women.

We have lost several good men, devoted fathers, hardworking husbands, and pillars of their homes. But beyond the sorrow of their passing lies an even more disturbing pattern: many of them died alone.

The stories often sound alike. A man would be seen at night in good spirits, chatting and laughing with friends before heading home to rest. By dawn, when he failed to appear for the morning prayers, concern would rise. Someone would go to his house, knock on the door, and then… silence. His wife or wives would go in, only to discover that he had quietly slipped away in his sleep. Alone.

Saleh was one of such men. A loving husband, a responsible father, a man admired for his dedication to family and faith. No one thought he had any serious ailment except for the occasional ulcer pains he mentioned. On that fateful night, he told his wives that he felt pain in his chest and needed to rest. He bade them goodnight and went into his room. The next morning, when one of his wives whose turn it was to stay with him tried to wake him for prayers, she met the most painful sight imaginable. Saleh was gone.

Stories like Saleh’s are becoming far too common, and they raise questions we can no longer ignore.

Why do some women begin to distance themselves from their husbands as the years go by? Why do they choose separate rooms, separate beds, and eventually separate lives under the same roof? Why do we leave men especially in their old age to face the silence of the night alone?

Our mothers and grandmothers may have quietly moved between their husbands’ quarters in those days, but times have changed. Today’s men face unseen battles like stress, loneliness, and hidden illnesses that often give no warning. This is when your companionship becomes medicine; your presence, healing.

We must also teach our daughters that sharing a room with their husbands is not a sign of weakness or over-attachment. It is a bond, a statement of unity. Let’s correct that backward notion that whenever a wife is seen in her husband’s room, something “inappropriate” must be going on. Let our children grow up seeing love, warmth, and closeness between their parents. That image alone can shape generations.

Dear women, do not abandon your husbands to the loneliness of the night. Sit beside him. Talk. Listen. Even in silence, your presence speaks volumes. Sometimes, that quiet nearness is the only thing standing between life and death.

Love is not always loud, it can be as quiet as the sound of breathing beside someone you vowed to share a life with.

mairommuhammad@gmail.com