Marriage Was Good, So Is Being Single

There are advantages to both states

My cat Opal near my roses and honeysuckle

I’ve been single now for almost 5 years. It was the beginning of May, 2017, that my husband left me.

We had some ups and downs in our marriage, but for quite a lot of it, we were reasonably happy.

Because marriage is a relationship between two disparate people, it’s never a perfect match. At least, I don’t think so. I’ve known people who pretend otherwise. Or maybe it’s not a pretense.

But next week, I’m having dinner with some friends of mine who have been married for over 60 years. He is 89 years old, she is a couple of years younger. Even though she was born in the 1930s, she got her degree in the arts. She studied at the Sorbonne. He supported this. When they had children, though, she was the one who stayed home with them.

But this seemed to be the decision that made them both happy.

Who knows what happened behind the scenes, but when I am with them, I feel content, which makes me think they are, too.

For those on the outside of my marriage looking in — they might have seen something different than what I experienced. But for the most part, I was happy.

Part of this was due to my taking control of my own life and being independent. I could…