Divorce and Parenting Consultant
Writer and Speaker
There are moments in life that we never forget. They are markers -there was a before and an after and life was never the same. That night many years ago when my marriage ended was just such a moment in my life.
Silhouettes and Silence
He parked the car and turned off the engine.
Frost slowly seeped up the windows creating a cold metal cocoon, a shroud to the outside world.
His silhouette, the one I had known since I was a child, from that love at first moment so many years ago, etched a sinister black line against the window.
His shoulders sagged. His chin dropped.
Moments passed, the evening chill surrounded us, and then his voice mumbled, his lips barely moving.
Words spilled out into the cold night air. Slowly, one word followed another and wove a tale of deception that stretched back years and years, all the way back to our childhood.
I sat there numb with shock and anger and disbelief. Where had I been? What life had I been living with him?
His words carried away my history. It evaporated into the night. All that was left was the shame I felt for believing in him.
Gone was the life I thought I knew. Gone was the warmth of our shared family memories. Gone was every reality I thought I had lived with him.
A whole life was snatched away from me that night.
There was only one question to ask.
“Why?”.
“I thought you’d never find out,” he said.
We sat together in the car for a while, so near and now so far apart.
Silence filled the space between us.
If you are in need of a place to seek some advice on a way forward during separation and divorce please write to letterstolinda@thedivorcemagazine.co.uk – Reaching out is the first step.
Click here for more articles by Linda as well as Letter to Linda
ABOUT LINDA SIMPSON
“I take strength from your calm, your honesty, and the hope you give me for my future.” Cheryl
Linda is a fresh voice in the divorce advice world. She offers a pragmatic, common sense approach to life after divorce issues based on over twenty years surviving and thriving following a very traumatic divorce.
As a single parent, her sons are an enormous source of joy in her life. She is a loving mother and grandmother to four delightful grandchildren.
She holds a degree from the University of Waterloo with concentrations in sociology and philosophy and guidance counselling certification from Queen’s University.
She is an accredited trainer for The Peace Education Foundation, a leader in conflict resolution training. The institute is ‘dedicated to educating children and adults in the dynamics of conflict resolution and promoting peacemaking skills in home, schools, and community.’
In a long and successful teaching career, she also served as a counsellor and workshop facilitator for SEL (social emotional learning) programming and The Peace Education Foundation throughout her school and school district and was a frequent conference presenter for SUNY Potsdam Faculty of Education USA.
She writes for The Divorce Magazine UK and her blog is seen regularly on Huffington Post Canada where the focus is life after divorce and parenting issues.
She is a writer and poet and is presently at work on a book based on her divorce experience.