I was talking with a friend of mine the other day about old jobs. Back in college I worked as a librarian at a small town library. It was a great job, lots of interesting people. Let’s see, there was the VERY religious family who had all their children dress alike. All the girls were prairie like dresses in the same pattern and the boys all had the same shirt and pants. And they weren’t twins. I think there were about 20 of them…or maybe 8. It’s been a long time. Another doozy was the woman who constantly argued about how her romance novels were NOT late and she refused to pay the fines. My boss always relented and would erase her fines enough that she was able to check out more trashy books. She yelled a lot. I remember on the last day she came in and I refused to check books until she paid.
But I also remember a small Thai woman who would come in with a much older man who looked like he was about to lose his legs to diabetes. She was probably in her late 20’s and he had to be in his 60’s. Being that it was a small town, I found out that she was a mail order bride. Oooh the scandal! I don’t think they could go anywhere in town without whispers following.
But I remember watching them. I never got the feeling the woman was unhappy. And the guy didn’t seem like a deviant either. They seemed very kind to one another. She took very good care of him; helping him along or pushing him in his wheelchair. They’d look at books and movies together and carry on normal conversations. I’d see them around town eating out and they both seemed very content. He had someone to help him and she was about to come to the U.S. and have some financial stability. All in all, it didn’t seem dubious or tawdry. A little lackluster maybe, but really not all that bad. Looking back, I’m sure they had a better relationship than a lot of the Stepford wives in the town.
What do you think? Can a mail order marriage work? Does there have to be romance for it to be a marriage?
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