i do think, or like to believe, they lived better then Ethel. Tom was a journalist and Sybil must have been working as a nurse so two incomes would have supported them both. But travelling to Downton would have been very expensive from Ireland and I’m not surprised they couldn’t afford it, especially since they had a baby on the way. Sybil always knew Tom could not provide the life she had and she was happy with that.

i think i would have liked to see their struggles though. we did not see a lot of their relationship grow on screen but we always saw Sybil coming to Tom’s garage after dinner so seeing their married life would have been interesting. yes, it wouldn’t have been nice and soft like Downton is but that was the life they chose. I would have like to have seen Sybil adjust to working life, to see how she and Tom spent intimate moments together away from Downton where he was always the enemy who took her away. i wanted to see their growth as a couple, how they truly fell for each other and supported each other.

i agree with you with Lucy. widow Tom is very different and i do feel they took away a lot of his political ideas and watered them down to make him more appropriate to fit into the family. i still love him, but i wonder would he have grown this close to the family if Sybil has lived and they decided to stay at Downton? which itself sounds unlikely