The Ely miner., 1943-08-19

with them, and walk back to a quiet
house to wait for the others.
"About two months ago I met an
army doctor of 81; I am "a. From
the first moment we two liked each
other, and now our feeling is some
thing much stronger. Harry is mar
ried, has two grown girls; he and
his wife have been estranged, though
living together with every outside
appearance of harmony for many
years. He is commissioned, will go
back to private life after the war,
and lives in distant suburban town.
We want, I will say frankly, to get
divorces and be free to marry; l
to keep Jackie with me. The lawyer
to whom I spoke about it said that
with a minor child that was GUS
tomary, but I would have to make
it very clear, as Carol has a sister
with young children, who would
gladly take Jackie.
Plans Home With Doctor.
"My problem is, to find some
place in the West where I could
take my boy, and where we could
live quietly during the processes OF
divorce. Meanwhile Harry would
write his wife and set the wheels
in motion there. Then, if he is sent,
as he expects to be, overseas, ]
would go to his own town, estab-
ish myself and Jackie there, and
begin at once to make friends and
prepare home for his return. What
do you think of that plan and where
would you advise me to go? I have
not attempted to tell you what this
thrush of new happiness and love
means to me, how good life sudden
ly seems, how miraculously changed
is the world; I will spare you that"
And she signs it, "Joyfully yours"
Poor Winifred, her letter is one
of the most pitifully deluded I ever
read, the most childishly blind.
Does she imagine for one moment
that doctor-of all professionsl-is
going to re-establish a good practice
In a suburban town whose every
resident knows that when he went
off to war he threw over his wife
for another woman? Does she real.
ly think that, having completely
failed to hold her first husbands in
terest and companionship, she is
capable of starting off with a new,
almost unknown, husband, and max
ing a success of it? If she does she
is heading for a terrible disillusion-
ment.
For one thing, Carol, with a good
sister to whom to send him, is very
unlikely to give up his child. Pang
first for Winifred. Then in Harry's
unknown suburban town she has
not a friend She would be home
sick and strange, disliked from the
start and suffering a heavy handi-
cap. More pangs. Then when she
discovered that dull life makes
a dull husband, that Harry wasn't
so very different from Carol, and
that at least part of the trouble in
her first marriage was her fault, she
would really begin to suffer.
Far better for her to change her
self than change her situation.
Change into someone amusing and
intelligent, and above all, affection
ate.
Change the way she does her hair
and the things she talks about at
dinner. Change Sundays so that she
goes to the club with husband and
son, and swims and plays bridge
and gets interested in other lives,
as they do.
Many wife feels that she would
be happier with another type of hus.
band. But the sad truth is that after
a few years both bride and groom
turn into plain humans, with lots OF
faults, and some virtues, and if
woman could be happy with any
man at all, the chances are she can
be happy with the one she has.