Wedding Vows vs. Friendship Bonds

A recent study cited by a Time magazine article found that 31 percent of marriages involving at least one sick partner end in divorce. However, the risk of separation for older couples was higher when the wife, not her husband, was ill. While men were more likely then women to get sick, when the women did get sick husbands were more likely to leave.

Many people, myself included my not be surprised by these results. During my own recent "study" (aka spending time at my grandmother's senior center meetings) I met many lovely women who had taken strokes or developed some time of illness, as a result their husbands felt they could not take care of them or they got scared and filled for divorce. While I will never know the other possible reasons for their divorces, many of these ladies do believe it had much to do with illness. However, the majority of the ladies at the meeting, had husbands that had fallen ill and passed away. I can say with certainty these widows sat at the bedsides of their dying husbands taking care of them till the end. In fact, some of these remarkably strong women took care of their ex husbands through their illnesses. What they all have in common now, they watch out for one another. If one lady needs someone to take her to the doctors or just lend an ear, you can be sure another lovely lady of the group will be there. Bottom line men may come and go but good girlfriends are forever. http://time.com/83486/divorce-is-more-likely-if-the-wife-not-the-husband-gets-sick/