My kids think it’s fine. My mom thinks it’s barely tolerable and very wrong-side-of-the-trackish. My estate-planning attorney thinks it’s wise. Most friends and acquaintances are probably neutral to who-cares about it. Whether I should even attempt, here, to articulate what I think is an iffy proposition. But is there anyone whom I wouldn’t want to know this? Not really.
When I talked to the above-mentioned attorney, to re-do wills and whatnot after Jeff died, she gave me (upon learning that I had a significant other,) a 15 minute lecture on why people “our age” don’t need to, and probably really shouldn’t, remarry. Her thesis was very finance-based, because that’s the capacity in which she is generally retained, and it made a certain amount of sense.
It made me a little sad then, and it makes me a little sad now. Because I am re-partnered for life, and I’d like the world to know it. I want everyone to know what I know about us, and I don’t (without the marriage thing,) have a way to convey it. Yeah...I think that was as good an articulation as I’m going to muster.
But, there are serious points. It would be a seriously bad thing if any of our kids felt that the other of us represented any kind of impediment to their future financial position. Because we don’t. I would sign a pre-nup to that effect if it were practical to marry, and that’s that about that.
My marital status presents the bigger problem. Staying as is, (as far as Uncle Sam is concerned,) preserves a good sum, which my kids would otherwise be paying to the IRS in the future. (post-me.) When I even think about forgoing that benefit (as my mother thinks I should,) I am faced with an ethical dilemma more compelling to me than whether my cohabiting behavior would get me ejected from a Texas-approved textbook. My kids had a dad who worked hard for them, and they deserve his estate tax exemption. I can’t make a personal choice that forfeits that benefit to them.
It is possible that there is some way of finagling trusts and such that would build a work-around for the problem. But I’m not sure. It seems pretty complicated. It may just be that protecting our five (collective) kids from the consequences of our actions may be best accomplished by inaction.
I guess I shouldn’t worry about what the world thinks. I’ll just leave it with a few thoughts: World? It’s not that I wouldn’t. Because I would. It’s not to keep options open. My heart has made it clear that Allen is the only option. Is there a better word than partner? I’d like a better word. Maybe we need to make one up.
