I hate Augusts

I just watched Lucy and as it ended I felt sad. Their divorce was the way all divorces should be, but ours was not.

We did not sadly end our marriage and remain friends forever.

We are not enemies. We get along just fine, but not because we regret the problems that caused our divorce -- although I think everyone does regret the problems because they make it hard on the children and leach years of joy from otherwise happy lives.

I didn't believe in divorces when there were children. Back then I'm not sure I believed in divorces at all then. 

By the time our divorce was finalized I mostly felt relief. Any trust and respect were both long gone. Our marriage was over nearly eighteen years before it ended. Maybe longer than that.

He asked for a divorce. I got it. and, I assume, both of us felt an immense relief that it was over. Looking back I realize we never talked about the important things before we got married. Had we done that and not assumed our families and backgrounds and expectations were the same, we would never have taken that final, seemingly irrevocable step. 

 I can barely believe that, at last, twenty Augusts have passed quietly without any heartbreaking incidents at all since that day we walked out of the courthouse unmarried.

It seems like only yesterday.