Myrtle’s Reviews > Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage > Status Update

“He is someone who made decisions about his own life, his own future. He is someone I can survive without. He is someone I don’t know. He is someone who doesn’t know me.”

The last bit is so important

In the beginning, think of the end.

“To see the moments, over twenty years, when I hadn’t protected myself, when I had chosen comfort over conflict, not knowing over knowing. I had put myself here, one decision at a time.”

The cost for feeling safe was being controlled!

“He had not hidden it. I had chosen not to look. I had chosen not to know.”

“You know, women become less interesting to men when they don’t work. It really has a negative impact on marriages. I’ve seen it a lot.”

Everyone is being so cruel to her

“ I was the casualty of someone else’s destiny. My despair was their happy ending.”

Exactly this

Just to track things, she has used all of her smaller trust to buy the apartment that he PREFERS, and put it in both their names. IT IS WELL, omg let’s not forget the dastardly prenup

“And I thought that was what you did when you were married—share everything.”

Out of everything she has said so far, this might be the saddest bit