The Commitment

The first two paragraphs introduce Alice's dilemma:

Alice could tell that it was time for Fred to die. During the past seven of their fifty-eight years of marriage, she had been expected to spend an increasing amount of time seeing to his needs. These expectations were self-imposed and realized by Alice's strong sense of duty. Long ago she gave her word that for better or worse, she would love, honor, and obey Fred in every way. She had always loved him and he never demanded beyond her abili...