The beginning of the end

On Tuesday evening - January 23rd 2007, my wife Mary told me that she wanted a divorce.

It came as a complete shock to me. True, she had been a little... distant over the past few weeks, but I never suspected that she would go so far so quickly. Initially, I just said 'No, no...' and then the tears came. I was powerless to prevent them flooding down my cheeks as the enormity of this hit me.

We had, like a lot of couples, I suspect, had our bad patches, but although there had been rare hints that our marriage was in jeopardy, we always found a way back from the brink.

That night, we lay in bed talking until well after 3 in the morning. Finally, Mary dozed off but I couldn't sleep properly. A barrage of thoughts rattled around in my brain.

How could I not have seen this coming?
How could I have prevented this?
I should have been a better husband.
What were we going to do now?
etc. etc.

I tried to go to work the next morning, but just couldn't face dealing with the complexities of my job. I made a couple of phone calls and went back home.