On Divorce, Sacrifice and Childhood

As a 75-year-old woman, I must remark on Bob Sipchen’s article on divorce and on those who maintain that “an unhappy home is good for no one” (“Divided On Divorce,” Feb. 24). How well as a teenager I remember having nightmares that my dad was gone. On awakening, I would slip down the hall and listen at the door to my parents’ room to hear him breathing. He was always there. What a relief.

Perhaps we parents of my generation were too intent on teaching our youngsters to be loving and lovable and, hopefully, reliable that we left out sacrifice, which we had learned so young with the Depression and World War II.

If the parents who brood about their lives not turning out to be as wonderful as they expected could find time to serve as a volunteer in a hospital, a home for mentally or physically challenged children or a retirement home, they could then be grateful for the home and family they have. Childhood is so soon over.

SYLVIA K. FREEMAN

Pomona