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~Table of Contents~
Acknowledgments i
Part One
Chapter One – The Beginning 3
Chapter Two – The Proposal 8
Chapter Three – The Wedding 11
Chapter Four – Reality Sets In 15
Chapter Five – Adoption 19
Chapter Six – Picking Sides 22
Chapter Seven – Vasectomy 25
Chapter Eight – I Think I want a Divorce 28
Chapter Nine – You’re Fired! 32
Chapter Ten – A Place to Clear My Head 39
Chapter Eleven – House for Sale 42
Chapter Twelve – Reaching Out 47
Chapter Thirteen – Legally Divorced 51
Chapter Fourteen – The Fight 54
Chapter Fifteen – Cape Cod 57
Chapter Sixteen – Downward Spiral 60
Chapter Seventeen – Enough is Enough 66
Chapter Eighteen – Should I stay or should I go? 70
Chapter Nineteen – Game Over 73
Part Two
Thy Y Guy 79
~Part One~
“The date is August 18, 2011. Happy Birthday to me…
I am 34 years old and I find myself back in my parents’ house where I started when I was a baby. I’m living in the same room, sleeping in the same bed. My mother has baked me a birthday cake. It’s time to blow out the candles. What do you wish for Alex? I wish for………”
~Chapter One~
“Where there is love, there is life.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
The Beginning
I was a sales representative for Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and had been since September 2001. I owned my own home, made over $100,000, had tons of friends, plenty of money and I was single. I had recently started my master’s degree, which Liberty was paying for and lived what I would call a great life. The only thing missing was someone to share my life with. I was living with a good friend of mine at the time and he was thinking of taking the next step with his significant other. It was a wakeup call that I was alone. I considered myself a successful good looking 27 year old and I came from a good family and I was the older of two brothers. It wasn’t like I was trying to be alone, but besides meeting a girl at the bar it was hard to find “the one.”
Suddenly like a bolt of lightning it hit me. There I was in the chair at my local Supercuts. She was a salesman’s dream girl. I could tell that she could sell herself as a hairdresser the same way I could sell insurance. Honestly who wouldn’t want to keep coming back to a beautiful brunette who could hold a decent conversation and give a great haircut?
After about 100 “No’s” for a date, On August 19th 2005 the day after my birthday, I got my first yes. Before long, our dating became more serious and we were comfortable with one another. We had hit that point in a relationship when you are no longer able to keep secrets and the sharing process must begin. “Alex,” she said, “I have a daughter. I had her when I was in high school.” “Ok, when do I get to meet her?” I asked. I assumed she wanted to see my reaction and my behavior before we continued the relationship. My assumption I came to learn was correct. If I wasn’t interested in children or meeting her daughter Hanna the relationship would have come to a screeching halt. Instead she decided it was still too soon for us to meet and I appreciated her decision. As the next three weeks transpired, we agreed that it was finally time for her daughter and me to meet. I remember it like it was yesterday. When I arrived, Hanna shied away from me so I knelt down to her level and reached in my bag and pulled out a soft, white little bear (with some candy of course.) From that moment, the name Alex was worn out and the father daughter relationship was my first defining role as a parent.
Like a whirlwind our relationship was off and running. We began introducing one another to each other’s families. She lived with her mother in Walpole right down the street from the house I grew up in. She informed me that her childhood experience had been very different than mine. Her parents had been divorced since she was a child. Unfortunately her parent’s relationship was toxic to the point that they still could not be in the same room together. So holidays and family times were always difficult. She had a half brother that was in high school and a four year old daughter. Working as a hairdresser was all she knew.
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