My wife and I have been married for 37 years. I am lost without her.

I am helpless without my better half

A messy sink.
(Image credit: keladawy/iStock)

My wife left me recently, and I didn't know what to do.

All right, it wasn't permanent. Sarah simply went to Australia to visit our son. (We've been married for 37 years, and we're still going strong.) But I didn't feel any less untethered just because her absence was temporary.

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Allan Ripp

Allan Ripp is a former journalist who now runs a press relations firm in New York. He has contributed essays and personal commentary to The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Atlantic, Forbes, Time, AdWeek, the New York Observer, and the Tribune News Service.