The Pittsburgh Press (March 9, 1943)
Millett: Army wives need advice
Being alone creates perplexing trials
By Ruth Millett
One thing this country needs night now is some classes for service wives, conducted by people trained to handle personal problems.
These women, some of them wives for 10 or 15 years and some for only a few months, have to make a difficult adjustment. Loneliness and fear for their husbands’ safety are just two of the big problems. The smaller problems often cause them more worry, more anxiety, more unhappiness.
If their husbands have been out of the country for months or a year, most of them are distressed because as time goes on, they feel out of touch, and no longer a necessary part of their husband’s lives. They begin to winder if they will ever be necessary to their men again.
If they are children and are living with their own parents or in-laws, there is almost invariably a clash between the two generations on the proper way to bring up children. Though the mother feels she is right, she isn’t sure when she finds her ideas disputed.
Many of them, in a desire to keep from thinking, fill their days so full that they are nervous wrecks. They are afraid to be alone, afraid to face their loneliness.
And so it goes. Worries and anxieties pile up to confuse them. For the sake of their present happiness and for the future happiness of their marriages, they need expert advice and guidance. It would be a fine thing if there were classes for them where they could talk over their perplexing problems, see that they are general, not personal problems, and learn how they can be worked out.