The Italian couple met and married in the 1930s and together had 5 children. They have welcomed 12 grandchildren and 1 great-grandchild into this world. In 2011 they celebrated their 77th wedding anniversary together despite their marriage hitting a rocky spot years earlier. It has been reported that 10 years ago, Antonio moved in with one of his sons because of marital unbliss but that he and Rosa eventually sorted things out. Sadly, this is not the case for the couple now.
Shortly before Christmas 2011, while rummaging through an old chest, Antonio reportedly found letters that evidenced an affair between Rosa and another man in the 1940s! 96 year-old Rosa admitted to the affair she had in her late 20s and/or early 30s, and Antonio filed for divorce!
I am sure record-setting was the last thing on his mind at this point, but at 99 years of age, Antonio becomes the oldest person on record to ever file for divorce. Apparently being in your late 90s is not a deterrent to divorce as the record previously belonged to two 98-year-olds, Bertie and Jessie Wood. At the time of their divorce, in 2009, the couple had been married 36 years.
My initial reaction to hearing this story was really? At 99 what is the point of getting divorced? And then I heard a local radio host's opinion on the opinion which was "get over it" and that got me thinking...
My initial reaction was sadly based solely on age and the fact that not too many of us live to be 99 and therefore, if Antonio did not have that many years left to live, why bother going through the headache of divorce? But then I thought about the fact that Antonio has already lived to be 99 years old and is still spry enough to be going through old chests, discovering love letters, confronting his wife about an affair and then getting upset enough about it to want a divorce. I figure at this rate, the guy could live another 20 years so why stay married? Even if he died tomorrow, should he have to stay married to someone he did not want to just because he is 99?
The radio host who said "get over it" spoke of the fact that they had been through so much together because they had been married for 77 years. He said that they must have shared an awful lot of hand holding and being there for the other when one was sick, etc. I say that would all depend on the kind of marriage they had. Sadly, just because a couple is married does not mean they are "there" for each other. We have no idea what kind of a relationship this couple had so what they had been through together may not necessarily be worth holding onto in light of the new evidence.
What bothers me about this story is the fact that Rosa still had the letters. Most people keep things that mean something to them, something they do not want to forget, which is probably why she kept them. It is possible that she may have initially wanted to hold on to what she had with this man and eventually fell out of love or lust with him and then just forgot she even still had the letters. Anything is possible. My gut is telling me this is not the case here and that she held onto those letters for a reason. And let's face it, in the 1940s, divorce was not a popular solution to marital problems. Most couples stayed married whether they wanted to or not. I speculate that Rosa wished she could be with the man with whom she had the affair but for whatever reason(s), chose to stay with Antonio. I also speculate that it is safe to say that if Antonio had found out about the affair when it was happening, he would have filed for divorce then. Just as divorce in the 1940s was not popular, neither is divorce at the age of 99 and that certainly did not stop him now!
What would you do if you found out your wife or husband of 77 years had an affair 6 decades ago and you were both now in your late 90s?
1 comment:
Initially, I thought the same thing as other people, "They have been married for soooooo long. Why get divorced now?" After a little more thought, I now have a completely different standpoint. Their marriage may not have been particularly happy. He may have been a religious man who did not want to break the vow he made before God 77 years ago. Once he found out about the affair he then had the biblical right to divorce his wife. If this is the case, I say, "Enjoy the rest of your life Antonio!"
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