Divorce can be deadly. It puts immense strain on relationships, causes financial and emotional ruin, and worst of all, tears apart the kids. It’s not just the ending of a marriage. It’s the destruction of a family. A broken promise… A “forever” that turned out to be a lie. As a child of divorce myself, I know the wound runs deep, and it can take decades to heal. From restraining orders to endless court battles, the fight can get downright nasty.
But one man, Sean Whalen, decided that he wanted to do things a little differently.
Facebook/Sean Whalen
Breaking the Cycle of Bitterness
When he and his ex initially separated, Sean admittedly wanted nothing more than to punch the living daylights out of her boyfriend — and they both required police escorts for their visitations with the kids.
The bitterness ran so deep that they couldn’t even utter a word to one another. Lawyers had to do the talking.
But on this day, they broke bread.
Facebook/Sean Whalen
Sean shared a heartwarming Facebook post detailing their story in brief but powerful snippets that have quickly gained viral attention, amassing over 600,000 likes and shares since it was originally written.
It is woven together simply yet seamlessly with a message of bold love, reconciliation and the healing power of “choice”:
This is my ex wife and her husband.
Our 3 kids and their 2 kids.
Tonight they invited me over for dinner.
[Five] years ago she and I had to have a police escort just to pick up and drop off our kids.
We only communicated through lawyers.
I wanted to punch her boyfriend (now her husband).
Tonight we broke bread, laughed, played with the kids and had a great evening.
Never give up friends.
