In sickness and in health

My wife and I were told yesterday that she has Chronic Kidney Failure. The doctor is going to perform an ultrasound to confirm the diagnosis, but his words were "we deal with diabetic patients on a daily basis, and have seen this thousands of times". In other words, be prepared to start dialysis. At that point, my wife asked him "what is the life expectancy once a patient starts dialysis". He hemmed hawed a bit, and then said about 5 years. He clarified that answer by saying that it is up to the individual patient, some die sooner and some die later. All this brings me to today's point. That is, why are relationships so hard to maintain? The divorce rate seems to get higher and higher every year, and yet the fiber of the nation, the core of our strength should be the family. I'm using my situation as an example, but I know of many good, strong people who fight through any and all hardships with the assistance and support of loving wives and husbands. How is it that the type of commitment to accomplish a happy relationship cannot be found in a more abundant manner? Why do men and women leave each other? I always believed that it was much harder to start over, than to maintain what I already had. I'm not happy that my wife is sick, but I'm also not going to leave her to fight this by herself. I made a commitment to her a long time ago, and I plan to live up to that commitment. Wouldn't it be nice if everyone could do the same!