Introduction

Abstract

In 2013 The Guardian newspaper featured an article about a separated couple who co-resided when the former husband became ill and the former wife, Sara Clethero, took care of him in her home (Moorhead 2013). The headline depicted the relationship as an unusual marriage. There are many interpretations as to what was unusual about the marriage. First, Sara was 40 years younger than her husband, John Challenor. Second, John was a Catholic celibate priest when they met. Third, and this is the unusual aspect of the relationship on which the article focuses, the couple had been separated for 25 years when Sara welcomed John into her house and organised care for him. At this stage he was 90 and had a degenerative condition related to Parkinson’s. In responding to the ‘unusualness’ of the relationship, Sara asserted the following: ‘I’m simply not prepared to be defined by a so-called broken marriage. Our relationship is much more complex. And when he needs me—and when I need him, because these things are far from simple on either side, we’re still there for one another.’ In particular, Sara commented that helping her ex-husband is also helping her daughter, who would otherwise, as an only child, be responsible for his care.