Woman's honest marriage post strikes a chord: 'Sometimes I want to give up on this'

"Because sometimes marriage is just too hard to see it through to the end."

ByABC News
November 8, 2017, 4:09 PM
Whitney and Mark Fleming.
Whitney and Mark Fleming.
Whitney Fleming

— -- One mom's brutally honest Facebook post about the current state of her marriage has women everywhere nodding in virtual agreement.

She gets real right from the beginning with the words, "Sometimes I want to give up on this ... because sometimes marriage is just hard, too hard to see it through to the end."

The writer, Whitney Fleming, told ABC News her husband, Mark Fleming, "thought it was an accurate depiction of what we’ve been going through the past year."

After 22 years together and 18 years of marriage, Whitney Fleming said, "We have three active middle-schoolers, and the logistics of their life is complicated. We both are focused on achieving milestones in our career and on some personal goals, so sometimes our timelines for things are not aligned."

Toward the end of her post, Fleming reflects on the photo that accompanies it and writes, "Each smile reminds me we overcame the pain of miscarriages and infertility and deaths and illnesses that we endured only by grasping each other tightly. The sight of us touching reminds me of how just simply grabbing my hand used to take my breath away, and still does upon occasion.

"And I look into his eyes, and I see that he is still the most decent man I have ever known."

The Wheaton, Illinois, couple have had a particularly difficult five years, Fleming told ABC News. They've moved, she faced a debilitating illness and started a business, and her husband has more responsibilities at work than ever before.

"None of it has been easy," she said, "but there have been easier, less stressful times."

Even so, she writes, "Sometimes I want to give up on this, but not today.

"Because although I’m in the season of marriage that is difficult and exhausting and hard, in these pictures and in this life, there is always a new reason to fall in love with this man all over again."