Every day we feature the beloved “Strawberry Letter” franchise that is so popular on “The Steve Harvey Morning Show,” heard nationwide. Send in your letters and Shirley Strawberry will dish out the necessary advice. Today’s topic: Is Marriage a Necessity? Dear Morning Show Crew: I am a 33 year old mother of 3 and 13 years olds. I have been with the father of my sons since I was 18. We are not married he was not born in America but I was. I wanted to get married when I was around 20 but my mom said I was to young and I should wait, well as time passed and we went on with our lives we never married he is 5 years older then I am. When he wanted to get married about 5 years ago I felt like why now? Maybe I was just being difficult. OK, so he and I separated for a about 6 months back then but we got back in a relationship and moved in together with the birth of our second son. Now that we have been living together everyone thinks that we should be married and says that it isn’t right for our children, I’ve explained to them that we love our children and we provide a stable home for them is marriage really that important? I don’t believe that I am missing out on anything…yes I guess you would say the legal commitment and the vow to be true to one another but Steve what if we have that already…Of all the married men and women I know at least 70 of them are miserable…I love this man and he loves me, my friends say that marrying him will validate that, but I don’t believe a certificate will do that. Are they trying to make me unhappy or do you believe they have my best interest at heart. (we separated because I told him I needed time to grow, I allowed my so called friends to get in my head then because they were single and miserable….not any more!
- “Strawberry Letters” are letters sent from fans of the “Steve Harvey Morning Show” and therefore do not express the sentiments of ESSENCE Magazine or ESSENCE.com. As these are fan letters, we have left them as close to their original form as possible.