This is a sad story. But then again, you will never know the intensity of the ‘blow ups’ that followed after the discovery. Perhaps, she said some things that just made him ultimately believed that the 77 years that they were together ‘felt like a fraud’. After 77 years, and the fact that it has occured many decades ago, marriage counseling could have possibly saved the marriage. You will never know what really happened. But then again, you also have to look at what the marriage was like before the discovery–maybe, they lived together with a loveless commitment, and just stayed married for one reason or another–many marriages in the past stayed intact for various reasons; economic dependency, societal, cultural and familial expectations, for instance. As a marriage therapist, I see many seemingly perfect couples in the outside, until they start talking about their issues–and I’d say, ‘you would never have guessed’. Marriage is both beautiful and ‘a cross to bear’. There is a thin line between love and resentment.