Carly fell in love

One Man's Web > Where I Live > Carly fell in love

Carly fell in love. It was a deep and passionate experience like she'd never known before. We spent a long time talking about this for she also loved her child and her husband. She stayed with them and life went on. I think maybe a new and deeper love grew between them. 

Somehow.. perhaps it was providence...we ended up at a family gathering.

Somewhere in the coffee chat an auntie said, "I can't believe these young women! That Leanne next door to us has run off with another man! They just don't have any values these days!"

It was one of those clear attempts people make to enlist the nearest clergy to their cause. Comment was being requested, and her assumption and expectation was that I would agree with her. I raised my left eyebrow and bit my bottom lip in my "Mmm... I'm thinking about this" look... which meant auntie had to drop it, or say some more herself. 

Another burst of indignation about the poor Leanne followed. For once, I got what was going on. Auntie knew... and this was going to be a nice polite crucifixion of Carly. So I did the minister thing. I commented how it must be hard for young people these days. Often young men and women have to spend long times alone together. You often see police working like that. Others are far away from home on business working in high stress situations...

But the auntie was not giving up. "How could that Leanne do that to her husband?"

I mentioned that some husbands who were publicly very loving, and even pillars of society were violent and abusive at home, or sometimes just emotionally absent. The auntie countered with the statement that any woman who looked at another man was a hussy even if she stayed with her husband. I don't know what was driving her but the venom was dripping.

I decided to talk about the situation at hand since it was obvious a fair number of the listeners knew exactly what was going on. I said I had great admiration for people who had stayed. I had a parishioner once, I said, who fell in love with another man. She didn't plan it... it just snuck up on her at a time when life was harder than usual, and she got in too deep before she realised. I said I had the greatest admiration for her because she stayed. She didn't run away. She endured the pain and the shame. And she had renewed her relationship with her husband and it was flourishing. That, I said, is a good wife. I would value a wife with a commitment like that.

The startled silence was ended by Carly's dad offering me another beer. Her mother in law suggested she would help Carly with the last dishes. The auntie left early and when we left... Carly kissed me goodbye and her hubby hugged me.