Daniel_

That's the point. It's NOT sad. My father (who I care about deeply) was made miserable by doing "what he ought to".

Leaving my mother brought him peace, happiness and an end to depression - not because she was bad in any way (she was not) but because she wasn't RIGHT for him.

In a more intimately mobile society he had the option of moving on, which he felt he wasn't entitled to because of his generation's view that "once you say I DO you live with the consequences".

My mother now has a new BF, and no longer has to watch her partner be sick and miserable without knowing why.

My father now lives with his new GF, and enjoys the shared interests that he never could with my mother.

Breaking up was in the long run a good thing for them. As a chemistry graduate, I would liken the pain of separation to the activation energy of a chemical reaction, and the better life that they both have now as the product.

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Overhead, the Albatross hangs motionless upon the air,
And deep beneath the rolling waves,
In labyrinths of Coral Caves,
The Echo of a distant time
Comes willowing across the sand;
And everthing is Green and Submarine
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