No! It is NOT how traditional families work when the husband and wife still love and respect each other enough not to allow themselves to become lardy human garbage disposals who do nothing but sit around eating and whining. This wife let herself go and her husband kept trying to talk to her about it, and she wouldn't listen or do anything about it. We celebrate our 18th wedding anniversary this year and I promise you we are still extremely happy and devoted, because we care enough to want to make the other person happy. It's not about normal aging; my husband and I have both done some of that (though I, at 44, still often get carded). Normal aging doesn't matter. Gaining 150 lbs., though, and ignoring your spouse's pleas to lose it? Demonstrating that you care more about cheese and cake than you care about the man who supports you, who you promised to love and cherish? That's why a marriage ends.