Bre Avery Zacharski
Early in this 37-year-old woman’s relationship with her 38-year-old husband, George, she ended up pregnant.
They chose to stick together, got married 10 years ago, and have been with one another for 17 years in total. Their oldest daughter is now 16, and they have a younger daughter who is 14.
She says that things were happy between them for quite a long time, but over the last several years, they have been losing touch.
It’s not that they fight or disagree; in fact, they both avoid conflict, so that’s not the reason why they have been drifting further and further apart.
A year ago, their divide deepened. They each struggled with mental health, and adding to that, their day-to-day obligations left them feeling so exhausted they had nothing left to give the other person.
Whenever they had conversations, they revolved around the girls or logistical things. Ten months ago, they brought up divorce.
“We both agreed it was probably the right thing to do, but neither of us was enthusiastic to uproot our whole lives, deal with the financial side of things, or face breaking it to the kids,” she explained.
“We talked about whether maybe we can still make it work and fall back in love, whether we should consider marital counseling, etc. Things were left very open-ended. A week later, my father died. We both embraced that as an excuse and agreed to revisit the issue later, but never did.”
“The last year has been tough. I’ve been mourning my dad and always had the future of our marriage in the back of my mind. But we’ve pretty much kept operating as if that conversation never happened.”
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