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I Divorced a Man I Loved

Leaving someone doesn’t necessarily mean we don’t love them

Colleen Sheehy Orme
ILLUMINATION
4 min readMar 11, 2024

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Photo by Yan Krukau: On Pexels

I called my friend to check on her. She’s broken up with a guy she’s been seeing for several years. She shed a few tears the night before.

“I’m calling to check on you,” I say.

“I’m fine,” she says. “Thanks for calling. I don’t know why I cried. I’m not a crier.”

“I get it,” I say.

“The tears aren’t for him,” she says. “I don’t regret leaving him.”

“Just because we leave someone,” I say. “Doesn’t necessarily mean we don’t love them. It means we’re smart enough to know they aren’t good for us. I still loved my husband when I left him. I didn’t want to be unhappy or unhealthy anymore.”

“I guess it’s good to get it out,” she says. “It’s good to go through the stages of a relationship ending.”

“A lot of relationships end,” I say. “And it’s not for a lack of love. It’s all of the other mitigating circumstances that crawl into our lives.”

“Yes,” she says.

“It’s good that we had the strength to leave bad relationships,” I say.

“I know,” she says.

“I sometimes forget that a remnant of me, did still love my husband. It’s why it took…

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ILLUMINATION
ILLUMINATION

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Colleen Sheehy Orme
Colleen Sheehy Orme

Written by Colleen Sheehy Orme

National Relationship Columnist, Journalist & Former Business Columnist. I cover love, life, & relationships— #WomanResurrected colleen.sheehy.orme@gmail.com

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