Who the hell did I marry?

By LUCY MARONCHA

“It is not lack of love, but lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages,” Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, a German philosopher of the late 19th Century said.
While settling down in marriage is among the best things that can happen to a couple in love, it is sad that nowadays, many marriages do not survive to see their first anniversary, though there are great expectations of the proverbial ‘happily ever after’.
One of the reasons for this unfortunate trend is that some people discover they are married to strangers. While it is expected that one will find out some unexpected things about their partner after tying the knot, some discoveries are shocking, to say the least.
Take the case of Bridget. She met a ‘good’ man at a friend’s birthday party, and soon they were dating. A year later, the two had a small party, inviting only their closest friends and relatives, and moved in together.
Bob had told Bridget that he worked for an airline. Indeed, he had the uniform to prove it, and even introduced her to some of his ‘colleagues’. They lived in a nice neighbourhood, and he often went ‘abroad’, bringing his wife beautiful gifts when he returned.
It was only several months later, when Bob was shot during a robbery in the city centre, that Bridget discovered the truth: Her handsome ‘flight attendant’ was a wanted gangster.“How would I have been so blind?” she wondered.
A better question might be how to look for criminal tendencies in someone whose living is dependent on deceit. Like Rhoda, whose husband is a pickpocket. This is not how he introduced himself six years ago, though; he described himself as a businessman, and dressed in the smart suits befitting such a position.
It turns out he is in the business of raiding other people’s pockets, mostly in the city streets and buses. Had it not been for the day he was arrested and could not find any of his accomplices to bail him out, Rhoda would never have known the truth.