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Show Kathleen Norris Says: The Case of Tivo Wives Released by Western Newspaper Union. "Archie and I tcent on a trip as to many people did when gas rationing stopped, and we were quietly remarried in a distant town." By KATHLEEN NORRIS " TN ALL your long experi-I experi-I ence of answering prob-lems," prob-lems," writes Hilma Johnson, of Salt Lake City, "I don't know that you've ever had quite this one before. I've done something wrong, somewhere along the line, but I don't know just where. "I was married seven years ago to a man named Archie; we were both 23. Ours was a true love match, and it was a great grief to us both that no children were born to us. We were, I believe, unusually congenial and happy. "When the war came, Archie was one of the first to go, with the engineers. en-gineers. I did not see him for three years. About a year after he left he wrote a desperate letter, telling me that he and a young Belgian girl, a nurse, had been lovers, and that she was expecting a child. He begged me for a divorce, and for the child's sake I agreed to it. I pretended a business trip to Elko, Nev., and quietly obtained it there. "I closed the apartment, stored our furniture, and went back to live with my parents. I had gotten a good job, and had told no one, not even my mother, of the changed relationship re-lationship between Archie and myself. my-self. "Seven months ago Archie came back, a . broken man. He looked years older, his hearing has been permanently but slightly injured, in-jured, and to reinstate himself in his old job seemed to him more than he could do. Resume Old Life. 'Tie turned to me, and as nobody suspected what had occurred, it was quite natural that he should be taken back into my life on the old terms; he had never been taken out of my heart. Everyone rejoiced with me, and nobody suspected the existence exist-ence of the Belgian wife and baby. A few months ago my happy suspicions sus-picions that I was to have a child were confirmed by our doctor, and I thought the secret of the divorce and marriage could be kept forever. Archie and I went on a trip, as so many people did when gas rationing stopped, and we were quietly remarried re-married in a distant town. "Now Marie, the Belgian wife, writes that she is going to come to America immediately after Christmas, Christ-mas, that their divorce has never been valid in her eyes, and that she wishes once' more to be his wife. Archie, for the sake of the boy, has been sending her money regularly, regu-larly, but when she left him it was with the statement that their marriage mar-riage was not a real marriage, because be-cause of his divorce, and that before be-fore she returned to Belgium she would change even her name. "This predicament finds us completely com-pletely dazed, and we don't know what to do. My employers -want me to continue with them as long as possible, and to return as soon after the baby comes as I can. Archie is already making himself valuable; valu-able; we cannot tear up roots here, especially as my father has had a stroke, and I am needed to keep up my mother's spirits. What can we do?" My dear Hilma, a divorce lawyer here tells me that Archie'i Belgian-born Belgian-born wife has no claim on him except ex-cept for support of the child, and I can tell you that when she mar- 7 I) Adopt This Belgian Baby. ... I ried a divorced man she knew that she was doing something that in her own mind was illegal, however, the actual law stands. It seems to me that safety for you and Archie lies in facing the music and not being afraid of the consequences. Trying to hide and pretend are the real things to far. Tell Her to Stay In Europe. Have Archie write her, of course, that he entirely disapproves of her coming to America, and that there is no possibility of the restoration of conjugal rights, as the British law-courts put it. Let him tell her that if she remains where she is, her allowance will continue, but that if she comes to Salt Lake City she will have to fight through the courts for her claims and may and probably will, lose her suit and remind re-mind her of the conditions under which Archie and she asked you for a divorce. If this fails and she comes, have no fear of publicizing this afi"air. Only concealment will make it interesting in-teresting to the newspapers; to admit ad-mit that it all occurred and is to be handled openly and honestly, will be to lose all value as news. It is possible that it is the child who is complicating matters; if her purpose pur-pose is to get rid of that responsibility, responsi-bility, then it might-be a magnificent gesture on your part to offer to take this little half-brother of your own child, telling anyone interested that you have adopted a Belgian baby refugee. Say little, but avoid all the difficulties that secrecy engenders, and you'll find the thing will presently pres-ently blow over and be forgotten. |