Another brilliant piece from a GUNNAS WRITING MASTERCLASS WRITER
He left me this week. If I was completely honest with myself, I would tell you that 18 and a half years ago, I saw this coming. And if I was honest with him, I’d tell him that I’ve thought about leaving a hundreds times over, never realising my wildest dream. But here we now are. Together and apart. Somewhere waist deep in the murky waters of differing versions of reality, truth and despair. Somewhere that at times, I’d envisioned to be, but never really wanted to reach.
I’m now part of the rising statistic of marriage separation and divorce in the modern ages. And I’m becoming increasingly uncomfortable with just how ‘okay’ I think I am with this outcome. Marriage is a funny thing. A commitment filled with so many nouns, adjectives and verbs; actionable promises made for a forever version of yourself you’re forecasting to meet. For better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, Shane and I had fulfilled those promises for 6722 days. We’d even made it to ‘til death do us part’. That is to say, the death of our marriage.