It’s common for Thanksgiving dinner to be the scene of uncomfortable moments. 

Audrey Beck recalls one holiday gathering where she watched a family member’s marriage collapse. 

“My aunt and her husband had been married for seven years at the time,” the junior Communications major said. 

She was 16, but vividly recalls the dinner.

“I was forced to sit at the little kids table with my cousins, but since I was sitting close enough, I was able to overhear their conversation,” Beck said.

It all began innocently enough. Someone asked about her aunt’s husband’s new job. 

“I heard my aunt bring up that he’d been staying late at the office a lot more recently,” she said. 

He defended himself by saying he and a co-worker were busy with a huge project that had an impending deadline.

“I heard my aunt say that this was the first she had heard of the big project, and she got confused,” said Beck. “She asked what big project it was, and he said something along the lines of ‘oh it’s a long story,’ which made her suspicious.” 

To change the subject, Beck’s uncle asked her grandmother how she was doing, but it did not work. Beck’s aunt was a hound dog on the scent of blood. 

“She asked him who he was working with on the project, and he said it was his co-worker Alice,” said Beck. “In that same moment, he got a phone call from Alice, and my aunt looked down at the call and saw hearts next to Alice’s name. She screamed and cursed, going off on him.” 

The whole room froze, and Beck’s aunt stormed out of Thanksgiving dinner without telling anyone goodbye. Her aunt’s husband left shortly after. 

“She got home, threw all of his clothes out, told him to move out,” Beck said, “That was the last time my family saw him.”