Member-only story
THE NARRATIVE ARC
The Unexpected Words That Helped Me Heal From Divorce
The painful journey through divorce and beginning a new life
The sun shone across the vineyard as I stood with Mark at a wedding in Virginia. He was a short, likable guy, with an infectious cheshire cat smile that he always spread with his good humor. Both our fiancés were in the wedding party, so we’d come out of obligation and were doing our best to have a good time.
I joked to him, “My entire Facebook feed is a waterfall of wedding photos right now.”
He paused in thought, then smirked, and said, “Well, you know what’s next then, right?”
“What's that?”
“The divorces.”
I’d have never thought one of them would be me. You never do. There’s something undeniably powerful about standing on an altar, with everyone who ever mattered watching you take your vows. In that moment, I’d have never looked at this other person and though, “It will all end in due time.”
Like many people, I was blindsided, though I shouldn’t have been. All the signs and cracks were there long before.
The most difficult thing about divorce is that there’s never full closure. There will always be this feeling of…
