A very compelling article. Didn't expect to finish it when I first clicked on the title. You're a good writer, keep at it. And yes, it IS partly your fault, but certainly not exclusively your fault. The one small detail that annoys me is that you kept switching between 'grandmother' and 'godmother'. I'm sure you chose to do that deliberately, but I personally just found it distracting and irksome. OTHERWISE, 4 stars and best of luck to the two of you TOGETHER!

What a beautiful, beautiful story. For all of the spouses and significant others who stand by us when we are barely making it or not making it this story is dedicated to you. Love is the only thing we can't get too much of. I'm glad you found love and were able to keep it. I pray that others in your situation and those who are truly down and out are given an angel to watch over them. This is a cruel world and I thank Salon.com for making it a little easier to live in with their articles, especially the ones that touch are hearts. Fight for love and never forsake it.

Is Salon turning into Cosmo? What a load of self-righteous upper middle class whining. You should run right out and find a doctor/lawyer to get you through the coming depression so you can continue to visit the tanning salon.

D

Yes, well-written, but it'd be difficult to come up with a newspaper headline for this, wouldn't it? It's not particularly novel, or even worth more than entries in a diary. Is reading this type of stuff, and fiction books, and watching TV shows like Desperate Housewives, etc....possibly responsible for the economic illiteracy of our country? I'll hazard a guess here: I'll say that 95% of women who find this interesting and who watch junk on TV and read countless fiction books, would truly believe Obama's economic plan during his campaign and since Nov 4 as he's described it.........will work, will infuse our Capitalism with some vibrancy to compete better o the world's stage. I'd bet that most Salon readers don't understand the importance of Ayn Rand's economic philosophy, or know about Amity Shales and her recent study of the Depression.........and therefore why Obama's plans strikes fear in business owners around the country. Economic illiteracy is at the heart of why we got the Pres-Elect we have, and for that matter, why we've had for two years now, the Congressional majority Democrats led by Pelosi and Reid. Economic illiteracy has crushed our country, and it's going to be tough to get out of it with the current crop of voters we have.

I still consider myself as a newbie here, but I've been here long enough to have developed the impression that, yes, Salon is in fact an on-line shotgun wedding of Cosmopolitan and The Nation.

marriage can be a growing process for each person. It's hard when your daily life is exposed to someone else at all times.

What a spoiled little self-possessed, entitled whelp. You don't deserve a guy like that, and only a putrid loneliness in your elder years. Pity the guy didn't dump your ass once better times returned for him.

Even though I am 58, single for many years on a fixed,(low) income. You story brought pictures to my heart that gave me a joy!Also a wish that we could teach our young ones this story of what really counts,(love,understanding your role in it,seeing this -then seeing the best once again in your beloved.Your honesty is refreshing!Your talent for creating-smells,sights and sounds delightful.The fact is I was a southern California beach woman doesn't hurt!Thank you for your tail of which I could, would,do long for every sight,sound, smell,and touch of it!Be Blessed!Look forward to more of your writing.

All I want to say is I've been there, done that and I made the same choice. That was 25 years ago. There will be more crap coming but please stay on. And when things get really really tough, call me.

I love you both. I'll pray for both of you everyday. I live in Brooklyn, Park Slope. Where can I send you my phone number?

Salon is teetering on bankrupcy and I am sure that one of its survival strategies is to try to appeal to female readers. Hence the Cosmo fusion articles.

Still, Salon has probably the best readers' letters discussion setup on the Web, even if you can't edit your own errors,and let's hope it doesn't go under.

Great analysis. I love posts like yours, they do not stop, not even to collect $200, and go right to conjecture.

If Salon is struggling, I'm sorry. I know they've dropped some paid writers and it seems like they've replaced them with those Open Saloners, who gleefully write for free.

Regarding responding to an essay with analysis, I think the minority of posters read these threads, since there's so much redundancy and I also think that many potential issues go unexamined. Whenever wealth is discussed, the consideration of jealousy should be requisite. Ms. Belger's opportunities and early sucesses have surpassed mine and so my critiques might be motivated by a desire to diminish her, so that, for a cybersecond, we're equal.

As far as Ms. Walsh publishing and seemingly protecting young women of privilege, it could be due to that ubiquitous tendency to prefer what appears to be their kind. The black kids sit together in the lunchroom and white male CEOs tend to mentor white males as their replacements, etc. However, a proclivity to find one's superficial kind should be scrutinized, for it might run contrary to a website's alleged values, such as feminism. If one believes that women should be subjected to challenges and can endure them, one shouldn't tender more protection to female writers than male writers. Anyone who's published on the web should expect a beating. Ms. Belger has the guts to place her name beside her words. Most of us who respond in these threads don't. Right there, she's braver than nearly all Salon posters and we should never forget that.