Divorcee Learns to Enjoy Life Again After 35 Year Marriage Ends by J. Ivey

Divorcee Learns to Enjoy Life Again After 35 Year Marriage Ends by J. Ivey

I could not find a copy of this online, so I cannot link to it. I have a print copy.

Someone did upload a copy to Scribd, but you have to have a subscription or whatever to read past the first few paragraphs

Girlfriend Power

Excerpts:

February / March 2022

It was the first Valentine’s Day after my marriage ended. The last thing I wanted to do was go to a party with a bunch of single ladies

Girlfriend Power by Jennie Ivey

[The author opens the piece by explaining that she and her husband George were divorcing after 35 years of marriage.]

… For the first time in decades, I wasn’t part of a couple. For the first time in my life, I was living alone.

… Why oh why had I said I’d go to my friend Pat’s Valentine’s party? “Celebrate with other singles at a girls’ night in,” the invitation read. “Food! Music! Games! Fun!”

[Initially, she called her friend who was throwing the party to decline. The friend told her the reason for the party started years before, when her husband served her divorce papers on Valentine’s Day, and her father died on Valentine’s Day a few years prior. The friend replied,]

… “instead of moping around because we’re not coupled up, we get together to have a good time.” She wouldn’t take no for an answer.

“And one more thing, Jennie – you have to wear pink or red. It’s a Valentine’s party rule!”

[She mentions that her ex husband George was a surgeon, and while he wasn’t the greatest husband, he did okay on Valentine’s – he’d bring her flowers or candy in heart shaped boxes and so on]

Before I left for Pat’s I said a quick prayer. I hadn’t done a whole lot of praying since the breakup of my marriage. Sometimes I felt mad at God. Furious even.

Did he care that I was suddenly single at 60, an age when most couples were looking forward to retirement and spending time with their kids and grandkids together?

My prayer that evening was short and to the point: God, please show me how to be single.

Christmas Morning House Fire Leaves Father and Two Children Dead, Wife and Oldest Child Injured

Christmas Morning House Fire Leaves Father and Two Children Dead, Wife and Oldest Child Injured

My condolences to this family.

One reason I’m posting this is that it goes to show that even if you do marry (if you’re a single adult who’d like to marry), it’s still no guarantee that being married with children is a permanent passport to Happiness.

A lot of Christians (especially the Nuclear Family obsessed) and to a degree, Hollywood (at least until the last few years), have been conveying this message for years and years that you can only obtain happiness, purpose, meaning or identity if you marry (and have children).

But what if you marry, and your spouse turns out to be abusive, self absorbed, or he or she develops cancer, dementia, or dies in a car accident or by some other means?

I had wanted to be married (I’ve pretty much made peace with being single in the meantime), but then I see news stories like this, and I wouldn’t want to be in this woman’s place, of having to navigate the deaths of a spouse and children, and now she has to parent the one remaining child by herself.

You can get married but then have it taken away in the blink of an eye by a car accident, house fire, heart attack, or god knows what else. This doesn’t mean that I’m anti-marriage, but I do want to keep a realistic perspective of it.

Aw, I see in the news story that two family pets (dogs) also died because of this fire – usually animals and people die from smoke inhalation, or they pass out from that, so they’re not alive to feel the flames, at least.

At any rate, this woman managed to get married, but now her husband and some children are gone, due to this house fire. She is single again.

(Link): Christmas Morning House Fire Leaves Father and Two Children Dead, Wife and Oldest Child Injured

The mother and oldest child were able to escape the flames
By Andrew Mark Miller | Fox News
Dec 25, 2021

A Dad and two of his sons have died after a house fire tore through their home on Christmas morning.

Authorities say the fire started at the home of the King family at 1:22 am Saturday in Quakertown, Pennsylvania and killed Eric King and his two young sons, Liam and Patrick, according to Fox 29 Philadelphia.

Eric King’s wife Kristin and the couple’s oldest son Brady were able to escape the flames while the rest of the family was trapped inside.