Well, I like Margret's answer the best. But what do I know- (I've had a marriage or two, which says something about me perhaps), I think that guys are stoic, I don't read instructions (and sometimes don't even take them well either) and Ingrid is a typical nurturing facilitator of my happiness and health, which I would like to say is a general characteristic of women/mothers�. Having just said that, it dawns on me, that two of them I was married to, decided that I was not the man they married� (someone changed, I'm still not convinced it was me), and while one has mellowed and become a friend after all the negatives, I think the other would like to see me walled up in some basement, never to be heard from again. So sweeping generalities about women, I think I will in the end, stay away from.

Ingrid gave a lot when I was sick, and even today she puts up with an enormous amount of BS, that is part and parcel of being married to me. I think we work because of her more than me. I would like to think, if the tables were turned, I would be as good a caregiver, after all I have some experience in it as a medic in a war, but my patients really didn't hang around much, which is where the real test is. They either died in my arms or soon thereafter, or moved on to more sophisticated care and long term treatment. So the chronic grind of dealing with someone who is in pain, emotional turmoil, fear, realization that life is terminal, and so much more that goes with that whole thing, I didn't have to deal with. But I HOPE I could live up to her example. I'm not so sure. I was a pain in the ass as a patient, and you know that just might be who I am, whichever role I am in. God help her if we have to find out.