Although not quite typical, Jason and Kelli Floder of North Huntingdon represent a small percentage of couples who remarry, sometimes after years of separation, a researcher said.
Nancy Kalish, professor emeritus of psychology at California State University, Sacramento, has studied “lost loves” for decades, authoring the 1997 book, “Lost & Found Lovers: Facts and Fantasies of Rekindled Romances” and the 2013 book, “The Lost Love Chronicles: Reunions & Memories of First Love.”
Kalish said most of the couples she's studied were separated longer than the Floders, but that a significant minority — 6 percent — divorced and remarried the same person. Sixty-seven percent of those couples stayed together after remarriage.
“The couples that I researched had to have at least a five-year separation. That ensures that they are completely severed from each other, and that growth and changes have occurred in the interim,” she said.
The Floders were separated for almost two years: She moved out in January 2015, they divorced in March 2016 then remarried in December 2016.
Kalish questioned 1,000 respondents in the mid-1990s and conducted a follow-up study in 2004 and 2005. Most were couples whose initial romance was when they were young (22 or under) and who separated for situational reasons — parental disapproval, moving away for college, joining the military, financial difficulties, having a baby, etc.
“When they reunite and marry again years later, these facts should be gone,” she said.
Kalish said the couples' chances of staying together improved with age — the older they were when they reunited and the longer they had been separated.
Stephen Huba is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-850-1280 or shuba@tribweb.com.
