Before Sally found her first husband she only had one additional serious relationship. The young man happened to be Jewish. Sally loved him. However, no matter how much they adored one another, the issue of religion was the cause of a lot of trouble for the couple.

    Sally was not liked by his family, not for her character, but because of her faith. Sally dated this guy for quite some time. She introduced her parents to him. She spent time with his family, but neither Sally's family nor his family was in favor of the match.

    Sally, at first didn't understand the problem. To her the issue of religious faith seemed a problem easy to overcome. However, the longer she went along, the more she realized that this issue was going to be a real problem between the families, and then later with their children. Eventually she broke it off.

    Awhile later, Sally met her first husband. Her first husband (I'll call him Jack)was in the military. For the first time, Sally fell head over heels in love with Jack. As the time came to be closer for Jack to ship out to the Korean war, they both decided that they wanted to get married before he left. Jack was a pilot. Sally married Jack two weeks before he left for Korea. Sally said they were the happiest two weeks of her life!

    Sally was a virgin when she got married. She talked about her first sexual experiences as joyful and full of passion. She never wanted to be apart from Jack, and yet he had to leave to go fight a war. The two of them spent two weeks in marital bliss before he shipped overseas.

    Sally tried to settle into life without her husband. She was a model at the time. I've seen pictures of her during her modeling days, and she was just drop dead gorgeous. She had dark brunette hair, and eyes. She was more beautiful than Greta Garbo. She modeled many different famous designer's clothes.

    When I knew her, Sally was not impressed by today's models. Having been a model, Sally had excellent taste in clothing. I have seen many of the vintage outfits she obtained while modeling, absolutely beautiful clothes!

    Sally continued working, after her husband left. However, she soon realized that she was pregnant. In those days communicating with a husband overseas was nigh unto impossible. Sally's mom helped her a lot during her pregnancy. Sally was ecstatic about having her and Jack's first child.

    Unfortunately, tragedy soon took the joy out of Sally's life. It wasn't long before Sally was notified that Jack was missing in action. I don't know if it was the tragedy of hearing her husband was missing, or what, but Sally soon had another problem. When Sally first told me this story she told me her husband had died. The reality of what really happened was still quite overwhelming to talk about for her.

    Not long after Jack was reported missing, Sally lost her first and only child by Jack, late in the pregnancy. So now, not only was Sally alone, but her child was gone too. She went into a depression which highly worried her mother. She had no further word about Jack for a long long time. Sally had to endure her grief by herself without even knowing if her husband was alive or not.

    I wish that I could end this part of Sally's story positively, however Sally was faced with a true tragedy. Eventually, Sally heard that Jack was coming home. Sally went to Jack's parents who asked her to come visit with them about Jack's return. Sally went there anticipating with joy Jack's return from his military service.

    Jack's parents tearfully explain just what had happened to Jack. Apparently Jack's plane was shot down in Korea. Jack was taken captive. Tragically, Jack was tortured, and drugged for quite sometime. According to Jack's parents he was not much more than an emotional vegetable upon his return. They begged Sally not to see him. They asked her to just get and annulment, and go on with her life. According to them, Jack was no longer able to communicate, and was never likely to recover.

    I can't imagine how Sally must have felt that day! She'd lost his baby. She'd lived without him all that time, not knowing if he was dead or alive, and then to be faced with such a horrifying decision. Finally, she agreed to his parent's request. Honestly, I don't think I would have. I think I would have demanded to see my husband in whatever state he was in. However, I never walked in her shoes. Maybe she didn't feel up to the emotional trauma after the hell she had been through already. Maybe she was just totally frightened by their description. She respected his parents, and trusted them, and did exactly what they asked her to do.

    She was beyond devastated. She felt guilty. She was alone. Her child was gone. Oh, how she suffered! For years Sally told people her first husband died. She did not tell me the truth until we had been friends for many years. That kind of loss is hard to recover from. She was one of the strongest people I knew!