by Rhonda Hansome
He was Coney Island, I was Bed-Stuy. Our different backgrounds, personalities and the hour plus train ride between us; made us worlds apart. But…if you include meeting in high school “seeing” each other, dating, “going steady”, years of engagement & decades being married, my ex & I spent several lifetimes together.
Love? Yes. Like? Not so much as I did when I was 14 years old. But to be honest HE didn’t change.
His mother after boycotting our wedding and a couple of years ignoring my existence, when Mom finally started talking to me (and by the way, she has not stopped yet!) the first thing she told me was that he wouldn’t change. At the time I didn’t know nor could I’ve understood what she meant, but somehow the years proved her absolutely right.
What this high school sophomore first saw as Phil’s confidence, a lifetime or two later was experienced as arrogance; his rapier wit sounded like needless insults and his decision making felt like a fossilized resistance to change. His erstwhile protective embrace enveloped like a smother. But Dear Reader* be advised, it was not Phil who changed.
Slowly, very slowly, but with an impact triple in reverse proportion to speed, divorce is what happens when world’s collide.
an unlikely union, i agree. i do have to say, you both made a very handsome son.
And sometimes when worlds collide, it causes a "Big Bang"(-like divorce) creating in its wake a brand new more wonderful/powerful universe. Congrats.
A really concise way to sum up so many years, great to read.