The Day My World Came Crashing Down

It was a Sunday morning like any other. My wife had been out of town, visiting some of friends from high school, and she just got back that morning. She suggested that we get some breakfast at Panera Bread, as we often do.

The conversation was pretty typical, her telling me about her visit, about how she didn’t sleep well, and how the drive home was easy, as there wasn’t much traffic on the road that early in the morning.

But then the conversation took a decidedly different turn.. Without warning, she got a very serious look on her face, and she dropped the dreaded D-word.

“I want a divorce!”

Wait, what?! Where is this coming from all of a sudden?? Like many couples, we’ve had our fair share of ups and downs (heck, we’ve been together for nearly 20 years now), but I honestly thought that we were good. In fact, most of our friends were envious of our relationship and the way we get along with one another.

She said that she didn’t intend to do this at Panera Bread of all places, and that she was going to wait another month to tell me, but that it had been weighing on her heavily for some time now, and she just had to get it out. When pressed, she gave the standard “I love you .. but not in love with you” line, that she had talked about this with her therapist for months now, and that her mind was made up for good.

Naturally, we went home and spent the next 3 hours talking about this all in great detail. There was no other man, no ulterior motives, she just wasn’t happy anymore and wanted out of the marriage ASAP.

Suggestions about doing couples counseling fell on deaf ears, and I have realized that there’s no way to fight to save the marriage when one person has completely checked out already. So I’m just going to give her what she wants, a quick and painless divorce.

Yeah, so this is going to suck.. 🙁