OCR Text |
Show Kathleen Norris Says: When the Lonely Wife Flirts Bell Syndicate. WNU Feature!. "This man is married, has a wife and two daughters in some eastern state. He is about 32, and very attractive." By KATHLEEN NORRIS ON MY desk today is a letter from a girl in Seattle, Wash., whose problem is poised between loyalty to the father who is away in the service, and the wife he left behind him. "My own mother died when I was nine," writes Jo-Ann Davis. "Two years later my father married a lovely gentle woman who had been my mother's friend. She was a true mother to me, and until her sudden death in a motor accident two years ago, my father and I were happy. Six months after the accident he married a third wife, whom I will call Betty. My father is 44, Betty 28. I am 19. "Dad met Betty on a trip to Chicago; they had known each other but three weeks when they were married. I had never seen her until she came to the house to be my new mother. I am a nurses' aid, and it was a great relief to have Betty there managing things, planning good meals and keeping my adored father happy. I have grown very fond of her; it is impossible not to like her, she is so helpful, help-ful, cheerful, enthusiastic and affectionate. "The trouble is that Dad, who is a lieutenant in the army, was ordered or-dered away overseas about seven months ago, and immediately after he left a change came over my young stepmother. She began to go out nights with various men, dancing danc-ing and dining, and, of course, drinking drink-ing somewhat, and often not home until early morning hours. Since we were just two women this wasn't so important, for I manage my own breakfast and lunch at the hospital, but what seems to me important is that there is now one man with whom Betty is falling in love. He is constantly here he is a naval officer offi-cer on duty near here; all the others have dropped away. Betty has been absent from home all night more than once in the last month, and she laughs and flushes when I make any comment on the affair. He Is 'Very Attractive.' "This man is married, has a wife and two daughters in some eastern state. He is about 32, and very attractive. at-tractive. The other day he walked to the piano and turned my father's portrait face down, saying jokingly, 'I don't think I like this man, Betty.' I was at the other end of the room, telephoning to a friend, but I heard it and saw it. Betty stood the portrait up, and it still stands, but it shows how he feels. "What I want to know is whether it is my duty to write my father of this state of affairs. It is very hard to write him at all and not mention Paul. Yet I don't know what he could do about it, and it seems terrible te tell tales on Betty. I've gone as far as to say to her that I hoped Paul wasn't dimming her memory of a much finer man, and for a moment she was serious then her usual laughter broke out and her only answer was, 'Jo-Ann, life is fun!' "Life isn't always fun, and It oughtn't be," this letter concludes. Aft j "It it my duty to tell my other?" I A DAUGHTER'S DUTY Has a daughter a duty to tell her father how her stepmother step-mother is behaving while he is away in the army? That is the question posed by a reader, Jo-Ann. She is 19, her stepmother step-mother is 28, her father 44. Betty, the stepmother, is very nice, affectionate both to Jo-Ann Jo-Ann and her father. Furthermore, Further-more, she is a good cook and home-manager. Everything was splendid until Jo-Ann's father, an army officer, went overseas. Betty then began to run around with men, stay out late, J drink and dance. Lately she has been seeing only one man, a handsome naval officer named Paul. The affair is getting serious, Jo-Ann realizes. real-izes. She has mentioned the matter to Betty as delicately as she could, but all Betty replied re-plied was "Jo-Ann, life is fun!" To complicate a bad situation, situa-tion, Paul is married and has two children. Jo-Ann doesn't know what to do. She hates to "tattle" on Betty, whom she still likes very much, yet she feels her father ought to know of his wife's infidelity. "I feel as if I couldn't just look on at this affair any longer, but I don't know what I can do." My dear worried little Jo-Ann, I say in answer, I think you have gone as far as you need go, in giving the flirtatious Betty a hint that she is letting the handsome officer infringe upon your father's rights. I wouldn't write him; I think that would be a great mistake. Written words are hard and unmanageable things; to write these words to your father would be to crush the happiest and most confident belief he has. Your loyalty to him involves only your own conduct, not Betty's. Keep as friendly and unsuspicious as you can; plenty of other tongues will be ready to inform your father of what is going on, if anything really serious seri-ous is going on. Let your voice always al-ways be one of affection for Betty and trust in her. Leave Betty Isolated. It would be a good thing if you could go away for awhile, visit an aunt, combine resources with some girl friend, or take a room in the hospital itself. Nothing will straighten straight-en Betty out so fast as to feel that she is completely on her own; nothing noth-ing will warn her admirer more eloquently elo-quently than to feel that the decks are cleared and that he and she must either end their affaitr or face possibly serious consequences. Most men with nice wives far away, and baby daughters, have no permanent intentions in regard to a love affair. af-fair. But it's a good rule for us all, mothers and mothers-in-law, neighbors, neigh-bors, spies, gossips, children not to write suspicions to our servicemen. A casual criticism lightly penned in a pleasant morning-room, with peaceful skies overhead, may gather gath-er momentum as it goes overseas, and land with the effect of a blockbuster block-buster on a lonely heart. There'll be a lot of explaining and straight-ening-out to do when your Dad comes home. Leave it to Betty. |