Its only fair to ask, since its been several years since Marie's passing, whether Charlie has considered that a new wife and mother could benefit his life and that of the family. The answer is that Charlie has considered this, in fact had met a charming lady of similar age that he admired very much and that he introduced to the family.  Their relationship prospered and the family became quite fond of Miss Marion but as time passed it became apparent that for her to take on the responsibilities of seven children was beyond the scope of reality.  This came as no surprise to Charlie since he was well aware that raising the children was becoming more and more difficult as the boys were becoming young men and Kathleen a young lady.

Its also fair to ask whether the family is really as good as the Social Services report portrays.  And the answer is that the family was no different than other families with frequent pranks and mischief that all children engage in. The Mrs. Pettis affair could be used as an example although their motivation was to protect themselves from what they considered improper treatment.  A more borderline event could be the boys taking the children downtown to see movies without Dad's permission and especially since there was a possibility of running into Dad whose office is nearby the theaters. In fact, they believed that Dad saw them at least once but chose not to make an issue of it. The boys decided that was stretching their luck a bit too far!