Dear Sis

My dear sister (Mary Elizabeth) is going through some serious marital difficulties. When we were young, there were times when we were inseparable. We were always close, and often shared our hopes and dreams. You see, Mary-Beth is my twin. We always talked of everything that was happening. When I was a missionary, Mary-Beth joined the "monogamous" church, which I had joined when I was 16. Then she found a fella that seemed like a great guy. She talked to me about him always. We discussed everything. We have always been like sounding boards, bouncing ideas off of each other. Well, the time soon came when she wanted to marry this man.

When Mary-Beth and her fella became very serious, they started talking about the future. Mary-Beth certainly liked the boy, but would always be asking me what I thought. To me, he seemed okay. He had a job, was going to college, and seemed to follow all the standards of his church. Before she would accept his marriage proposal, she had asked him some very searching questions, like if he was, or had ever been violent, if he was chaste, was he not only willing to, but was his only desire to create a family and raise his children to be righteous? And of course, when all his answers were completely positive, Mary-Beth was thrilled to accept his marriage proposal.

After they were married they moved to his family's farm. This was an enormous adjustment for me, because Mary-Beth and I rarely talked after that. I mean, we did talk, but it was not like before. Of course this is only natural. Now she had a husband and she was the epitome of "being one" with her husband.

The problem was, that year after year, we talked less and less, until she only spoke to me maybe once a year. Then our conversations were limited to just pleasantries. However, we have recently began talking again. Mary-Beth has confided in me and told me what happened after she married her husband Lorne.

I have told her of my blog here and she is aware of my stance on her church. For years she did not approve of my decisions, but now she is seeing them in an entirely different light. She has also finally given me consent to post her story here on my blog. And so I will.