The Way They Were

Chapter One

1


Ready, Set, Grieve


She came back to the table and sat down, and after a moment Shukumar joined her. They wept together, for the things they now knew.
-Jhumpa Lahiri, "A Temporary Matter"


I was at my office the day my parents split up. I was gearing up to go on vacation. My boyfriend, John, and I were flying out to Washington state, where we were going to drive north of Seattle and ferry over to a cluster of islands in the Puget Sound and camp. It was June 2001.
Stacks of legal pads covered my desk. I had been reporting a story on "mean girls" for several weeks. I was fiddling with the beginning of the article when Dad called. "Hiya, Brooke," he said. He asked about my weekend. We talked about when I was coming home.
Then Dad grew serious. "I want you to know what happened today," he said. His voice sounded more formal than usual and a bit shaky, which made my heart race the way it does when I stumble out of bed to answer the phone in the middle of the night. Dad rarely called me. Mom would call, and after we caught up, she'd pass the phone on to him. I did ... read full excerpt from The Way They Were: Dealing with Your Parents' Divorce After a Lifetime of Marriage ebook