She Wanted Him to Grow Up

Ready for Stability

By the time she met and married Mike Rivers, Jackie had had her fill of the singles scene. She couldn't wait to quit her job in a Medicare office, buy a house, and have children. On the other hand, Mike, a trailer mechanic, saw marriage as a chance to escape his parents' rules, to pool resources, and as an opportunity for him and Jackie to make love any time they wanted. "I figured we'd keep on having fun, going to discos and the beach," Mike told us in our April 1988 issue.

He assumed Jackie had the same idea -- until she complained that he was acting like a little boy who refused to settle down. "I want a normal family life," Jackie told us. "I don't want to wake up in 10 years and realize I'm still not a mother, still living in a rental apartment, still working, and still trying to satisfy a husband who wants to spend all his time at the beach or in bed!"

On the verge of divorce after only two years of being wed, Jackie and Mike sought help from Evelyn Greenblatt, a board-certified clinical social worker in Branford, Connecticut. The couple, now both 48, recently celebrated their 24th wedding anniversary. We got in touch with them today to find out how they kept their marriage together: