Friday, August 21, 2015

A Death in the Family

I am in mouring. I am grieving over the loss (by divorce) of my dearly-loved son-in-law. My daughter, after only two years of marriage, one of which was spent apart from her husband due to a military deployment, decided that she didn't love him, wasn't happy any more, and wanted a divorce. I just don't understand this generation.  She took vows.  They mean nothing.  She isn't the only one I know about who just walked away from a marriage because of "unhappiness".  My daughter's husband didn't beat her, didn't do drugs, wasn't a criminal, and loved her very much.  She had no other reason to divorce him than that she was "unhappy".  He had a good job, but she didn't think he could support her.  She was in the military, he is a civilian, and she resented the fact that she had to resign from Active Duty and go into the  Reserves so that  he could continue to keep his job and pay off his student loans. Apparently that sacrifice was too much for her to make for the sake of her marriage. He is devastated, and so are we in the family from which he is being summarily dismissed. She wrote us all a letter explaining why she was doing this, and letting us all know that she did not want to hear our criticisms, as she felt that her own self-criticism was enough.  She's damaged a good man, who does not understand why this had to happen.  She has said herself that she treated him shamefully while she was coming to this decision, probably in some delusion that maybe he would make the decision to get a divorce first and she would be absolved. She's damaged her parents and siblings, who also can't understand why this has happened. I do not know this woman.  She should have learned the importance of commitment both from direct instruction and from the role models she had growing up. The worst part of this is that I feel guilty, thinking that somehow I should have been better at teaching her about commitment.  This goes against everything I believe in.  I keep apologizing to God for not being able to fix this.  I am miserable, mostly because of what it has done to our son-in-law. My eldest son  called this a death in the family for those who are not the husband or wife, and I think he is right. I know that there are five stages of grieving before the final acceptance.  I am in the devastation stage.  Frankly, I can't see ever accepting this, but maybe with enough time it will happen.

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