Some names and locations are different or purposely vague. Apologies in advance for the long story – skip to the second half if it’s too much info, this is just how it came out when I wrote it. This happened in the late fall of 2017.
Backstory:
The last year and a few months have been simultaneously the worst and best of my life, with the scale leaning toward worst but getting better.
A couple months after our ten year anniversary my marriage fell apart due to failures on both sides and my wife, prompted by her mother, decided to leave. To my utter shock – I thought we would work through it and I really wanted to, but she didn’t. Caught in the middle were my young kids (the youngest of whom was just a baby at the time). I was generally just devastated; anyone who’s been in a similar position can relate the disappointment, depression, the feeling of failure – this story isn’t about that, but I feel like some context is important.