The Every-10 year craziness

The day after Valentine's Day...which happened to be the date of J and my first date, my Mom calls to tell me that her and Dad are having issues...BIG ones.  According to her, they had never been a good match and it didn't look good for them long-term.  Now, my parents have been married 33 years.  They are very religious....daily Mass, hours of adoration, etc.  However, my mother has never been....I guess the way to put it is consistently emotionally stable.  She allows things that bother her to build up....and then it all comes pouring out due to something that shouldn't cause that sort of reaction.  Growing up, approximately once a year, she would threaten to leave Dad and I.  Usually because we were taking her for granted and not pulling our weight.  She has worked on this over the years...and is much better than she used to be.

Anyway, I found out from Dad what had happened.  He had kept from Mom that his massage therapist for a young, attractive woman.  She knew he was getting massages for his chronic headaches....but assumed it was from an older lady.  Now, my Dad is soooo not the cheating type!  However, this is Mom's biggest push button issue.  10 years before, when I was in college, they almost got a divorce because:

1.  Dad had a female friend
2.  Mom was on some bad menopause meds

And about 10 years before that, when I was in first grade it happened for the first time over a different female friend.  Now, Mom had warned Dad going into marriage that she would be like this....so I guess he was forewarned.  However, he has never had many friends and loves her dearly....so I really don't see the harm.  Plus this past time it was just a professional encounter!

Regardless, since I don't have any siblings I didn't have many people to turn to that know all the background.  It isn't something you just tell everybody!  I gave into myself, and called J....