> Believe it or not, there was a time when
> divorce was rare. My father was one of eight
> siblings and my mother was one of six. Of all
> those blood-kin aunts and uncles, only one was
> ever divorced. One uncle never married, but
> most of the rest were married to the same
> person for 40 or 50 years. The second marriage
> of the one uncle who was divorced lasted about
> 40 years. Strangely, his two wives had the
> same first name and were roommates in college.

My great-grandfather, who was born in 1901 and died in the early eighties, spent his entire life believing that his father had died when he (my great-grandpa) was five. It was not until a year or two ago when his son, my grandfather, was doing genealogical research that we found out that my great-great-grandfather had divorced his wife, who then moved to a new town and told everyone, son included, that she was a widow, due to the incredible stigma against divorce at that time.

-Eric Sleator
Thu 3 Oct A.D. 2002