Keeping it honest
Let’s hand it to Grady and Marie Jefferys. They’re braver than the rest of us.
The rest of us wouldn’t be willing to publish a book baring all the pain – let alone all the mistakes, misfortunes and misjudgments – we’ve been through, and put others through, throughout our lives.
We might – in fact, we do every day on Facebook – share the good news, good things and good times. But the bad stuff? Not so much.
But Grady, and Marie, did in a book that Grady wrote and published, and Marie allowed him to write and publish, “Keeping It Together: Grady and Marie, Their 60 Years of Marriage In the Age of Divorce – A Story About a Love Affair.”
Just keeping a marriage together for 60 years is an accomplishment. Their secret? Grady wrote, “Long ago, we determined that we would never divorce, but we jokingly added that ‘murder is always an option’.”
I’ve known Marie and Grady for most of those 60 years. Grady worked part-time at the N&O when I started there as a teenage copyboy. But I didn’t know all the trials and troubles they went through – a youthful marriage, a jealous previous husband and daughter from that marriage, three children of their own and all the problems that brought, health problems and, through it all, demanding careers in journalism, advertising, publishing and politics.
In 2013, Grady wrote a book about his career, “I Never Promised Not to Tell.” He told a lot of secrets about a lot of people he worked with, and against, in Raleigh over the years. As he said recently in the N&O, “I have told other people’s secrets, and many of those affected would have preferred that their secrets remained secret. I felt that to be less than forthcoming would be hypocritical.”
I admire Grady’s honesty, and I admire Marie even more for putting up with it. The book is painful sometimes, funny sometimes and real all the time.
Their story calls to mind a quote, the provenance of which is debated, but the wisdom of which is not to be doubted: “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”
Keeping it honest
Let’s hand it to Grady and Marie Jefferys. They’re braver than the rest of us.
The rest of us wouldn’t be willing to publish a book baring all the pain – let alone all the mistakes, misfortunes and misjudgments – we’ve been through, and put others through, throughout our lives.
We might – in fact, we do every day on Facebook – share the good news, good things and good times. But the bad stuff? Not so much.
But Grady, and Marie, did in a book that Grady wrote and published, and Marie allowed him to write and publish, “Keeping It Together: Grady and Marie, Their 60 Years of Marriage In the Age of Divorce – A Story About a Love Affair.”
Just keeping a marriage together for 60 years is an accomplishment. Their secret? Grady wrote, “Long ago, we determined that we would never divorce, but we jokingly added that ‘murder is always an option’.”
I’ve known Marie and Grady for most of those 60 years. Grady worked part-time at the N&O when I started there as a teenage copyboy. But I didn’t know all the trials and troubles they went through – a youthful marriage, a jealous previous husband and daughter from that marriage, three children of their own and all the problems that brought, health problems and, through it all, demanding careers in journalism, advertising, publishing and politics.
In 2013, Grady wrote a book about his career, “I Never Promised Not to Tell.” He told a lot of secrets about a lot of people he worked with, and against, in Raleigh over the years. As he said recently in the N&O, “I have told other people’s secrets, and many of those affected would have preferred that their secrets remained secret. I felt that to be less than forthcoming would be hypocritical.”
I admire Grady’s honesty, and I admire Marie even more for putting up with it. The book is painful sometimes, funny sometimes and real all the time.
Their story calls to mind a quote, the provenance of which is debated, but the wisdom of which is not to be doubted: “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”