‘I Still Would Have Picked You’: A Goodbye Letter to My Wife After Divorce

I guess that sums up most of it. I have thought about this day a lot as it approached. And all I knew was I wanted to end “us” well. Sounds stupid I guess…to want to end our marriage in a “good way.” But I keep thinking back to that old movie The Lion in Winter. When the sons, in the dungeon, think they hear Henry coming down the stairs to kill them.

Richard says, “He’s here. He’ll get no satisfaction out of us. Don’t let him see you beg… Take it like a man!”

Geoffrey replied, “You fool! As if the way one falls down matters!”

Richard replied, “Well, when the fall is all that’s left, it matters a great deal.”

It was an honor to have you for 20 years. It will be my privilege to be a close friend [for] the rest of your life.

So I will end this with a few words with from the great theologian Cyndi Lauper.

“If you’re lost you can look — and you will find me
Time after time
If you fall I will catch you—
I’ll be waiting
Time after time”

With all my heart,
Michael