notarized the final divorce papers today...

[villager]

Ex is downtown, ostensibly filing this very last step to make it "official."

It only took five years!

What I mean is: There was so much bitterness (it ended with her affair -- not the easiest way to "say goodbye" in these circumstances) that it took awhile to see a mediator. We legally separated for all the financials, and then the tail end of the "paperwork trail" just sat there.

There was no absolute need for either of us to finish, once we were past the financial part, since neither of us has remarried since (whether I'll give the ol' institution "one last chance" remains an open question), but I'd been pushing to finish as part of a psychic "spring clean" I've needed to do...

And today, she volunteered to take the paperwork "downtown" to finish things up.

Oddly, we walked to the notary together, after she met me at our youngest son's school. We chit chatted -- about our oldest starting high school in the fall, among other things - and I was reminded, in a somewhat wistful way, of the day we excitedly went downtown to get our marriage license.

And here we were, "together" doing the opposite.

Things change, eh?

And yet, by waiting to "finally finish" as long as we did, there was less rancor than there would've been earlier. There was a time when such a walk with her would've been impossible to bear.

Now, while it's necessarily wistful -- as previously noted it was also, in its way, all right. Bearable, the rest of the day gotten on with in good spirits, etc.

Which is something.

It really does get better.

Now, if only we knew that about the world at large! ;-)

[electron_blue]

1. That's very touching.

I'm glad to hear you're doing so much better.

It was 5 yrs ago this month that my marriage ended and I have also had a few wistful moments. Hard to believe how much better off we both are now than 5 yrs ago.