My great grandmother and her first husband lived in the house she was born in until both her parents passed. By that time she had 3 kids. When her first husband ran off during the depression she got remarried and sold the house and moved to this part of the state where my great grandfather already owned a house.
I wonder if her first husband went out to get the proverbial “bottle of milk” or “pack of cigarettes.” My family suffered pretty badly during the depression - and they all shacked up in one house in Queens.