Show kathleen norris S says ays when a serviceman wants a divorce dim ce be bell features feat 1 it he comes home greet him affectionately with the usual home meals anil and friendly gatherings and as soon as you are alone ask him in so ninny many words what is this alnut a divorce joe by KATHLEEN NORRIS T T THEN HEN your service husa csome band writes you from some faraway far away place that he wants a divorce the best thing to do is to ignore his request or if you want casu casually ally to mention it tell him you wish to wait until he comes home then go on with letters as usual when he comes COM es home greet him affectionately tiona tely with the usual home cooked booked meals and friendly gatherings and as soon as you are alone ask him in so many words w what Is i is this about a divorce joe if you keep it simple and friendly get the truth out of him easily hell either mumble in embarrassment that gosh he know why he wrote that letter or hell tell you there is is a girl in belgium french english russian perhaps american she is pretty and sweet and 19 and gee is she in love with him your part now Is maternal and calm Is she coming to america joe well eventually of course and be married here well Wel lyou you see they gotten that far perhaps they are going to send joe to the pacific lor for occupation duty in which case your argument must be that it would be folly to get a divorce send for vera and undertake the maintenance amainte nance of you your child and his new wife to say nothing ot of her traveling expenses ask him hi m to write her that everything must m wait until joe comes back for good joy of cf getting home this reasonable attitude must win for joe wont be too anxious especially in the pleasantness of getting home to break off all his old associations c ciati ons and friendships as well as his relations with you after all it likely that vera Is going to offer tuna him a good job in some other city and support him until he is self supporting again if on the other hand he Is discharged from service then help him in every way you can to get reestablished without dwelling on his proposed change be as cheerful and natural as you can remember that thousands of these men come back whole to in body but sadly twisted in mind and that only time can cure them A few months perhaps even a few weeks of home life of good meals of movies and malted milks and swims and contacts with old friends will be all the cure joe needs he will suddenly come to his senses and although he may never apologize never soy that he feels himself a tool fool to have written that letter he will be only too glad to sink back into his old normal happy american ways wads violets case Is a little different her husband in the service two years has only recently left america he came home after about six months and told her he was tired of her he did not think that theirs was a successful marriage lie he stayed home a few days grew affectionate and kindly again and went away with the usual wrench of parting from wife and daughter A few weeks later he wrote her a letter saying that theirs had not she is pretty and sweet and 19 H HELL GET OVER IT I 1 the misery and loneliness of ivar jo do stran strange go things to a m mare an many happily married soldiers and sailors who have been away for two or three years y ars somehow decide that the wives wives they once thought were the loveliest women on oft earth are no longer satisfactory frequently they have met some younger girl while on occupation duty in europe or the pacific area she is flattered by attention not used to luxuries soshe so she makes a big hit with the lonely serviceman presently he is persuading himself that his ilife at home is is not so much compared with avith this foreign woman itoman lie he eventually gets up nerve to ask ash his w ife for a divorce so that he cm can marry y this new love miss aliss norris tells wives who reccie receive these heart breake breaching ng letters to try to ignore them or at least to take them as lightly as possible A weary serviceman serviceman far enduring discomfort and abuse cart can easily convince himself that he wants a divorce it that tie he actually has stopped lovin loving 9 his wife but that the jirl girl at hand is so sweet so comforting con efort and his wife is so far away been a successful marriage and he w wished a divorce violet was a stunned but she wrote him te temperately m per a saying she was sorry he tev fell so and including the usual news ck herself and the baby kent then began to send her long analytical letters explaining in just what psychological and physiological ways she had tailed failed him he said he had never in their six years together been really happy he looked upon the whole thing as a failure there was no other woman he would always send violet money but he w would stop every cent of allowance right now if she did not at once start tor for reno dout ray pay much attention instead violet wrote to m me e and I 1 advised her as I 1 advise all women in this s fix to go steadily on without paying much attention to such letters I 1 suggested that she write less often but keep her occasional letters pleasant and ordinary war Is the real trouble not these difficulties ending in logical and yet without a trace of logic about therril perhaps kent was being bitten from head to foot by tiny penetrating gnats perhaps h his I 1 s com company P a ny had a bad cook and he was hav having ing indigestion perhaps his top sergeant or young first lieutenant was pulled puffed up with power arrogant inexperienced rien ced unreasonable perhaps he had blisters on his feet or prickly heat on his neck perhaps hes just bitterly homesick bitterly lonely feeling bitterly that violet was having it pretty soft in a cool clean fresh house with good books clear skies plenty of ice end and watermelon and the right to go to a movie or a dance whenever she wants to theres a touch of the sadist in us all lonely a dreary barracks life sometimes brings it out |