I live in nova and work in dc, I know precisely the types you are referring to. I do not believe Laura fits that description. She was committed to someone she was to marry. He callously jilted her while she was undergoing chemotherapy. She appears not to have met anyone else to make a life with. Knowing she is a faithful Catholic to whom her faith is important, it’s likely that after prayerful consideration she’s felt led to do this. You presume selfish shallow motivations. Taking what we know of her life, ideology, devotion to religious precepts, I see her motivations differently. Let God be the judge.
After reviewing my memory, I realized that it was thirty years ago ... time marches on. So you still see the same kind of thing? I would not be surprised.
Many calamities are upon us in this current era. Two of the worst are “baby moms” and the bold pervasive culture of sex outside of marriage. But worse than those two is a related one:
The Dad-less children. The children growing up in sub-cultures such as young professional DC, or the urban black neighborhoods where functioning solid marriages, Dads married to Moms, are rare or unknown. These children, these preteens, these teens hit sperm-and-ova age having NO IDEA what whole families are, what “Dad and Mom” means.