“How is that a dad joke?”
“Ummm, cuz I’m a dad and I made it.”
Oh, he was a dad. This wasn’t on her radar. At all. Notorious for being the best aunt and the one oldest daughter who’d never wanted to have kids, her childhood had been riddled with trauma and suffering, so really early on she’d decided having children wouldn’t be her thing.
There had been a marriage though. Fairly late in life compared to her siblings. She was 32 and met someone who felt pretty right. He said he didn’t want children either. And he loved her adventurous, innovative spirit. Until then.
Until then was about 5 years into living a life together where she roamed the earth following her dreams and he wanted her to settle in and settle down. It took another two years of distancing and remote living before he was able to look her in the face and tell her he didn’t love her anymore.
He really didn’t love her. She wondered if he actually ever did. It was more the idea of her he loved than the real live truth of who she was. A free spirit. True to herself. She wasn’t willing to sacrifice that for anyone and not willing to believe anyone who truly loved her would ask her to sacrifice herself.
The break was a break. Hard. Fast. Real. It happened in a moment. And it felt like years. Within three months of his declaration of not being in love with her she was signing divorce papers and boarding a plane with her best friend on a new adventure and the beginning of a different life. One where she wasn’t married. And she wouldn’t be again. She knew who she was. She knew what she wanted.
Kids weren’t a part of this picture. And this guy, he was a dad. It didn’t fit her picture.
Stay Tuned for Part 6. Until then.