Friday, January 20, 2012

A cautionary tale

I heard advertisements yesterday for a news program which was going to air an interview with the second Mrs. Newt Gingrich (as opposed to the current, third Mrs. Newt Gingrich).   I didn't watch it.  It all sounded too familiar.

When I was a kid I took piano lessons from a local lady who also taught a pretty little blond girl named Kathy.  Kathy was enough younger than I that I really didn't know her well, but one of my mom's best friends was a relative of her mother's.  As the years passed, mom heard from her friend about Kathy's life since the friend saw the girl's family often on family and social occasions.  During the 1980's Kathy went to work as the secretary of a well-off man in a nearby town who owned a heavy equipment business.  He wasn't Warren Buffett rich, but quite comfortable.

After a while mom's friend reported that the man had divorced his wife and married Kathy after having an extramarital affair with her.  Kathy was still ensconced in the business office, presumably to keep an eye on her husband.  They had quite a life, even taking the private jet down to the Caribbean to his vacation home.  Mom's friend even went with them once and described the plush accommodations

Later, mom found out that the man had divorced Kathy for another fling he was involved with.  When her friend told us, mom and I just rolled our eyes.  The man had already proved that he wasn't above cheating on his wife when he married Kathy;  she shouldn't have been surprised when the scenario was repeated with her.  What convinced  her that she should expect more faithful treatment from the philanderer we couldn't fathom.

2 comments:

The Calico Cat said...

Back when I was in the dating pool, I really did nto want to date a divorced man. My thoughts - once you go through a divorce, it is easy enough to do it again & again & again... (Mistresses or boredom, or...)

(Not to mentiont he possible ex-wife in law scenarios.)

Kathryn said...

The late businessman Sir James Goldsmith had a famous saying "When a man marries his mistress, he creates a job vacancy." Generally this seems to be true.

Of course marriages can break down, but to deliberately set out to hook up with a man or woman who has already proved their expertise at lying, cheating and deception seems like asking for trouble.