The Divorce

I think Mother and Dad had been married about 27 years when Dad decided he had had enough.  I'm not quite sure why.  I think he just decided they were so different he could not stay with her any longer.  I think he just fell out of love with her.  She was a dutiful wife and not very exciting.  I think Dad was in a little bit of a mid-life crisis and needed to try his wings.  I would be the last one to judge Dad or anybody else.  This I can say, it devastated my Mother.  He was her life.  In the absolute Christian doctrine they lived by, mother was subservient to the head of the house.  This means she did not have much experience in living life . . . especially by herself.  What it meant for my Brother Jeff is another story.  Mother's story is the story of novels . . . maybe someday.  I will say that this event, in my opinion was the beginning of her slide into the dark work of mental illness.  Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, she spent much of the rest of her life in and out of institutions, living on the streets, sinking into the absolute depths of poverty and darkness.  Again, I say that someday I will write her book.  But, this was an important step in her journey.