Back in 1974 my first wife and I came to the end of the road in our marriage. We had been married just over seven years and had three children. Our problems were NOT sexually related and we continued to have very satisfying sex right up till the end.

The reason she wanted to divorce was because she did not like being a Mother. She wanted to be a “professional woman”, in this case a Registered Nurse and did not want the responsibility of raising or even helping to raise children. I thought this was bad, but she was giving up all claims to the kid, who I adored. So, under those conditions, I agreed.

Well, as it turns out, she was seeing another man on the side. He was single, had money and had never been married. He also did not want any kids and was old enough to be her father.

After the divorce and after the minimum waiting period, she married her much older lover and my replacement. Things rocked along until one day I got a call from the County Sheriff telling me that “my wife” had been arrested for passing bad checks. I was told that the judge would drop all the charges if the checks were paid and no one insisted on charges being filed.

I tried to explain the “my wife” was NOT “my wife” any longer. The Deputy told me that “it was all the same to him, but if I did not want her in jail, I’d better get down to the County Court house and pick up the list of bad checks.”

I told him “I’d think about it” and after getting all the information on who to see and where to go, I hung up.

I thought for about forty-five minutes and strongly considered doing absolutely nothing. But I did still have feelings for her and she WAS the mother of my children. So, I went.

At the courthouse I went to the county clerks office and after identifying myself, got the list of merchants where she had passed the hot checks. In total the checks added up to over $2,500.00 in 1974 dollars. This was a bit of a shock because as far as I knew, her new husband was very well off and I could not understand how or why she was writing checks on one of our accounts, which she knew, was CLOSED.

After picking up the list, I went to the county jail and arranged to me “my wife”. She came into the room where visitors were allowed to sit at a table with the prisoner and sat down. She looked like she had been crying non-stop and was really used up.

I asked her what had happened and she just burst into tears. She babbled something to the effect that she had forgotten and had written the checks on the old account. I called her a liar and insisted she tell me the “whole truth”. She finally told me she could not explain, and that I could either help her or she was “ruined” as her new husband would never understand and would toss her out.

We went on like this for about 15 minutes and I asked her “why should I help YOU”? You dumped ME! I asked if she could “pay back the money”. She said no that she did not have access to that kind of money and that things were not so good on the home front when it came to money. It seems the reason her new hubby was ‘well to do’ was that he never spent a dime he did not have to spend.

Finally, just as the visiting time was ending she said she would find a way to pay me back but I would have to trust her.

I had intended to pay for the checks all along, but it did my heart good to hear her express a sense of debt to me. I told her that I would think about how she could pay me as well.

Over the next few hours, I drove from merchant to merchant paying off these checks with cash that I had withdrawn from my life savings. Late in the day, I arrived back at the courthouse and presented the County Clerk with the receipts and he gave me a stamped piece of paper and told me to give the paper to the Judge’s clerk. I went upstairs to the court area and did just that. The judges’ clerk took the paper into the judges chamber and in a few minutes came out with an order to release on personal recognizance provide I WOULD GUAREENTEE that she would be back for a hearing in four days.

I agreed. So, I took the paper down to the jail and gave it to the person in charge of this sort of thing and after a wait of about 45 minutes, my “wife” showed up in her street clothes looking like she had been on a three day bender.

I explained that she had been released in “my custody” and I was responsible for getting her back to the court for the hearing that would be held to determine if she would be charged with anything. I explained that meant she had to stay at home with the kids and me.

She did not like that one damn bit and tried to brow beat me into letting her go home to her new husband. I said, “fine, if you won’t go home with me till the hearing, you can go back to jail”. “I won’t be responsible for someone that I can’t supervise”.

She finally agreed and called “hubby” and explained that the “kids” were sick and needed her to help take care of them since I was worn out with the effort. Of course this was a lie.

As soon as we got home, she jumped in the shower and took a long bath. I loaned her an extra robe and she laundered the clothes she had on. I told her that I would take her “home” to pick up a few things in the morning.

Now the kids were ecstatic. Mom was HOME. I explained that she was “just visiting” and would go home again in a few days. They were not happy, but accepted it. After all she had been gone for several months.

At this point she was totally exhausted and wanted to go to bed and asked where she should sleep. I told her the only place she could sleep was in MY BED. At that point, I think she was too tired to argue so she just went in, took off the robe and lay down. I took my bath and followed soon after.