Secrets

If I'm asked to keep a secret, I do. It's important to me that my friends know that I can be trusted. I have found that the majority of secrets find their way to daylight, no matter how hard people try to keep them.
My Family, especially my Grandmother tried to keep lots of things quiet. Some I understand, others, I wasn't sure why she made the effort. Her father was a drunk, who fooled around on his wife, my Great-Grandmother, and had his son-in-laws join in on the 'fun'. It seems he was married once before he married my great-grandma, and then divorced her to marry a prostitute. (What a class act huh?) She wasn't a pretty, heart of gold one either. Think fat drunken slob....
On the other side of the family, mental illness was covered up, ignored. Stupid, but understandable in that day.
My father's only sister was know to have affairs with young priests in the Catholic Church.
An email was recently sent to my father, from the Azores. There are people trying to do some genealogy, and are checking to see if the, J.M. "Smith" (false name there, my great-grandfather), is the same one who emigrated to the San Jose, CA, area, because he had fathered an illegitimate child in the Azores? Here it is 100-150 years later, and secrets come to light. (My father has no idea, but, is going to see what he can find out.)
I just find it really interesting. BIG HUGS, Steph

Love

Does real, lasting Love exist? The kind, with not only love, but, friendship, respect, and a genuine liking for the person you have chosen to spend the rest of your life with?
I've spoken with (online) several men lately, who, while are married, and have no plans on leaving that marriage, have a wide and varied sex life, outside of that marriage. Two of them use the excuse that their spouse is ill, or has been ill, and so not able to fulfill their sexual needs.
I'm really torn on this. I'm no angel, (and have no right to judge) ... That's all I'm gonna say, but, lately I run across more and more of these gentlemen, and it's made me wonder.
Are there any marriages that are good, and based on, held together by, love and a desire to honor and respect that person, even if they do get sick? What if your spouse that you love, was in an accident tomorrow, and they were paralyzed? What if they got sick for months or maybe even years? What if something happened to where you had to spend extended periods of time apart?
I grew up with parents that fought constantly (they still do). Grandparents that were more advisaries than spouses, and one set of grandparents where my grandfather spoke to and treated my grandmother like she was lower than the dirt he walked on. She ended up having a nervous breakdown (before I was born). I always hated him. She died when I was 4, but I loved her and remember her. My other grandfather was a warm loving man when it came to his children and us as grandchildren, I couldn't have asked for better, but he and my grandmother were like tired, bloody old fighters, stuck in the same ring together for many, many years. He died first, and she was terrible towards him in the end.
I know of, and admire a very few men who are in relationships, that really love their wife/partner, and are faithful, but, I'm afraid they are a minority and a dying breed.
So, does real love exist?