Relationships with the in-laws can be tricky but usually common grounds are found. For there to be continued peace or a respectable co-existence, that common ground needs to be nurtured and nobody ought to step out of line or disputes will arise.
However, for this man, this dispute was, quite literally, a matter of life and death! Someone had crossed the line and he couldn’t imagine that what had happened ever could.
Hank was a man in his 30s, living together with his wife. He was an average, normal guy - a very easy-going and calm person - and it was rare to have him lose his temper.
He was happily married with his wife for some years now, but they had one big issue.
While his relationship with his wife was perfect, he did have considerable problems with his mother-in-law. Being a polite and calm person however, he didn’t oppose to her regular visits, knowing how much his wife needed her mother’s presence.
One time however, something unthinkable happened during one of those visits that rocked the tentative peace they had found.
His wife had to undergo surgery, due to a health problem she had developed. She followed her doctor’s advice and had to stay in bed for at least a week after the surgery.
This is when things got wild
Hank also had a chronic asthma disease, which made him carry an inhaler with him at all times, just in case. Naturally, he also kept one on his side at night, right on the dresser on his side of the bed.
He always left it at the same spot, so he could easily reach it. It was always there for emergencies, until one day it wasn’t.
Considering he had to go to about his usual job, and his wife needed assistance as she had to stay in bed, they both decided that she would benefit from some company.
So they invited her mother over to help her for as long as Hank was away.
On this fateful day, Hank came back from work as usual and his mother-in-law left. He did some chores and went to bed.
He didn’t even think of his inhaler, because he always believed it would be there for his emergencies. Until he needed one and it wasn’t.
In the middle of the night, he woke up, struggling to breathe.
He reached for his inhaler, which he always put on his side of the bed, but it was nowhere to be found.
Hank was able to get the bathroom quickly, where he kept a spare inhaler, and he could finally breathe.
He would later go on to say, “I don't know what would've happened if I didn't have that spare on hand.”
Hank was obviously outraged. Who could have done such a thing? It for sure wasn’t his wife, since she couldn’t get out of bed and she understood the magnitude of the situation.
Since no one else had been in the house, it must have been his mother-in-law. He knew they didn’t like each other, but he certainly expect her to pull such a life-threatening move
He asked his wife if her mother had moved anything while visiting the day before, but she replied that she doubted that.
She called anyway, just to be sure and reassure Hank there was no way her mother could have done such an appalling thing.
Her mother told her the inhaler was in a plastic bin, in the drawer, where they kept lots of random stuff. Not only was it there, but it was buried beneath everything else in there.
“She had to move stuff out of the bin to get the inhaler. I know this because that's what I had to do,” Hank wrote online.
His wife told him that it was either he had put it there himself or the cat did. While he’d know if he had done such a thing, the cat suggestion made him outraged. How could his wife suggest such a thing?
Why was she not supporting him? He obviously almost died and she was still defending her mother. He felt he was being gaslighted by them.
In typical new-age conflict resolution style, Hank took the issue to Reddit. "Wow, they are unbelievable," wrote one commenter. "Both of them.
You are being gaslit. How can your mother-in-law know where it was in such detail and your wife still blames the cat?” Ideas were already forming in his head.
While a majority of the comments were on his wife and her mother’s neck, others tried to think of other explanations as to why she would do such a thing. “Does your mother-in-law know how bad your asthma is? I have asthma but it only flares during winter or summer.
Moving my inhaler wouldn't be much of an issue. I'd be annoyed though,” wrote another commenter.
While the situation looked fairly easy to discern, Hank came in with an edit to his post that would change everything about the story.
See, while everyone else was arguing about who was right or wrong, he had discovered something critical in the meanwhile.
In a surprising twist of events, Hank came to update his Reddit post by saying, “I'm terrible. I'm wrong 100%.
I wasted all of your time and I'm very, very, sorry.” Apparently, he had blamed the wrong person, but the question still remained - who could have created such a nefarious plot that would endanger his life?
Well, Hank had recently changed the type of inhaler he used. The new ones had a removable cover, while the old ones didn’t.
However, in his frustration, he couldn’t tell the difference between the two.
When Hank calmed down, he started thinking about the events that led up to that night again. His wife explained what she had said to him and suddenly, everything made sense.
How could he have missed that?
Apparently, the culprit was exactly who the wife had suggested. The cat!
She was always a very energetic kitten so it shouldn’t have surprised him at all.
“My wife meant that maybe the cat knocked my inhaler off the dresser, not that the cat had stolen the inhaler.
I would've known that if I had stopped shouting about her mother and just listened to my her,” said Hank in his heartfelt apology.
What about the inhaler in the bin then? According to Hank, it was actually an old inhaler that he mistook for his new one.
“I'd already used my emergency inhaler so it didn't occur to me to check the inhaler I'd found for the different cover.”
“I am dumb and too quick to anger with 2 women that love and care about me. I'm sorry.
Please don't hate me too much,” Hank concluded. He certainly was waiting for a brutal criticism from Reddit.
Most of the commenters were understanding of him, seeing how almost everyone had also jumped to the same conclusion as he did.
Hank was relieved to see this but he needed to fix the damage he had done.
He talked to his wife and mother-in-law and profusely apologized for his outburst.
He certainly hoped he hadn’t insulted any of them and if he had, he could atone for it.
Thankfully, both reassured him that no offense was taken and they understood the gravity of his condition.
Anyone in his position would have reacted in the same manner
In retrospect, the situation was so funny: all of that fuss was made by a single playful cat.
Well, Hank and his wife absolutely needed to take care of that issue, so they bought a bunch of toys for her to play with in the hopes that she would leave his inhalers alone.
Hank invited his mother-in-law over for dinner, wanting to make sure that no bad blood remained between them.
They had a great time and more good news were incoming.
Hank’s wife was finally able to move out of her bed and slowly but steadily, her life (and his) got back to normal.
Above anything else however, Hank was ecstatic that she was healthy and happy.
While we’re happy that everything turned out fine, one thing is for certain - we should always remind ourselves to keep emergency spare medicine somewhere close to us.
You never know what pet might disrupt your life.