Guarding marriage

We can only wonder if the domestic violence that saw a 47-year-old pregnant wife kill her own husband in Marigondon, Lapu-Lapu City would have happened if she had the right people to counsel her in her  suspicion that her man was seeing  another woman.

Editha Sollano used her husband’s .38 caliber pistol to finish him off.

She was fed up with his “secret affairs”, said their daughter  and, after numbing her pain with  a bottle of liquor at home, sent the kids to a relative’s store and waited to confront her spouse when he came home.

With this   grisly incident, we can reexamine our commitment to the social relationships we establish particularly at weddings.

Wedding sponsors are supposed to be guardians of the marital bond of husband and wife, not merely ceremonial figures to complete the cast at nuptials.

Emmanuel Hernani, Cebu Normal University psychology professor, said couples in strained marriages should  seek  advice from their parents or their wedding sponsors.

Who could  Editha  turn to about  her anguish over an unfaithful spouse?  Simeon had been texting  a woman named Leonor and mentioning her name in his sleep.

What about Leonor, the other woman?

At this hour she could be  a symbol of many other Leonors , who  by personal weakness and the connivance of a  liberalist  milieu carry on affairs with  married men.

With  annulment cases  on the rise in  cities, as confirmed recently by Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz,  society shows   in these places a prevailing mood of unwillingness to work through the challenges of that solemn, life-long institution we call marriage.

It is sadder still that the challenges could lead to bloodshed like the case of Simeon, which leaves  ten children and one yet unborn without a father.

With  Editha’s incarceration for the crime of parricide, the offspring are left without a mother as well.