Life was dull and demanding. The only things that kept them going were the hopes that their husbands working away from home would save enough money and return, that the sows would have piglets and the fields would yield a good harvest, and that life would gradually become more comfortable.
They herded sheep in spring and wove cloth in autumn, year after year, keeping watch over their courtyards in the mountain village. The grass on the slopes withered and grew green again, the children slowly grew up, and the women were left alone to tend their empty homes, quietly waiting for their men to return from afar amid the weary routines of daily life and the long, lingering loneliness.
