This is the story of being married to someone who is of a lesser IQ.

There's no easy or more sensitive manner I can think of at the moment to explain our situation.

The wife attended college and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. She up until recently held a professional position in the career of office technology for the last 20 years. She earns a salary in the above $60,000/year range.

The husband attended special education program in high school (during the 1960s) and graduated with a HS diploma. He has worked as an employee in hardware stores, a health home care aide and a cleaner in manufacturing companies. His last year earnings (before retirement) were $15,000/year. He has been a volunteer firefighter for more than 35 years, changing fire departments each time he moved. In case you are not familiar with volunteer firefighting - the volunteers receive the same training as do professional firefighters - they just don't go to a professional school for firefighting. Training for volunteers is done on their own free time and usually 1 - 3 times a week before they are certified into various classes (Interior, Fire Police, etc).

The wife had never married and had never lived with anyone other than her parents as a child and again with her parent as an adult. Yet she had a child. She raised a son as a single parent throughout both their lives. The son is now a young professional living across the continent (in Seattle, WA) working in the information technology field. He now earns above $45,000/year.

The husband had married right out of high school and remained married for 20 years until the relationship became verbally abusive and resulted in a divorce.

These two people met at the ages of 59 and 58 and fell in love.

This is their story about how they have grown together in their marriage. It is a story of conquering verbal abusiveness, learning to manage anger, learning to live with another adult, learning to accept each other and each other's differences. Which has NOT been easy!!