Sylvia, 46
Philadelphia

I always knew that I would be married at some point in my life. Marriage runs deep on both sides of my family… that didn’t mean that I was supposed to get married. It didn’t mean that I was supposed to follow THEIR footsteps.
In hindsight, I FORCED my ex-husband to marry me. I know, it sounds crazy but he wasn’t ready. Just a few years prior to getting married, he lost his mother. The only true friend and woman he ever loved. He loved me also but he was filling in a void that could never be replaced. Looking back, he just wanted to do the “right thing”, what his mother would have wanted. She liked me, in fact, the only date he wanted to get married on, was his mother’s birthday! Should have been a clue. He walked through the remainder of our marriage in a fog and not shedding a tear, so I thought. He wasn’t ready. Ready to be a husband because he needed to become the man he needed to be without his mother. I wouldn’t take back the experience, but I’m definitely slower to speak and unapologetic for staring into people’s eyes.