How the Lawyers ruined "Happily Ever After"
...ived with their mother and their father. When I questioned my mother why my father lived in Pittsburgh and not in Naples with us, she thought it best to be honest and just say, “That’s because we got a divorce when you were two.” Divorce, a new word for me at the time but certainly one I wouldn’t forget. When a friend would ask me why I didn’t have a dad, I would simply say, “My mom and dad got a divorce,” not being really sure what that was. I would sit and watch happy movies like Cinderella and The Little Mermaid and wonder whether the happy endings in the movies would also have a divorce (whatever that was.) The next time I had to contemplate divorce was when I was 10 years old. My grandmother and grandfather decided that their marriage was over after forty-two years. My grandmother and grandfather were like my second parents. It was in them that I saw the epitome of what marriage was. I couldn’t understand how they could live in two different homes when to me it seemed that they loved each other so much. I started realizing just how many people around me were divorced. The final understanding of the word divorce came like a disillusionment of the dream that one day I’ll get married and live “happily ever after.” Years went by and more and more I started to see the real truth of what marriage was. Both of my two aunt’s marriages had collapsed and other kids at my school were soon also living with one parent and going through the same things I had to. It wasn’t until three years ago that my dreams were at last reinstated. My mother and I received an invitation to attend my great grandparent’s 65th wedding anniversary. I...