Sometime during my late teens/early twenties my parents decided to get divorced. After about 20 years of marriage, they were done. I was broadsided by this move because they never fought or showed any sign of impending breakup. Being an only child was especially hard during this, because I had very few people with whom I could share my sadness.

My Mom took me out to Red Lobster to give me the news, but she didn't actually get up the nerve to tell me until we went next door to Bannister Mall. I don't remember much of the shopping trip, but I do have one terribly distinct memory of looking through tears at the stair-steps of an escalator, wishing like hell that I wasn't in such a public place so I could really let Mom have it. Maybe that's why she took me to the mall, so I would take the news quietly and not cause a scene.

I don't know. It was a hard time for all of us. It's not really completely over, either. Mom and Dad still don't get along--in fact, they can't even speak to each other now. But I am glad to be older and wiser now, with a life of my own.