Divorce in the Family

My aunt and uncle got divorced last year. In our family this was a shock. Nobody had ever divorced before. For weeks, the adults talked in low voices and stopped when the children came in. My grandmother said it was shameful. My mother said it was sad. Nobody asked my aunt what she thought.

I went to see her. She was living in a small apartment with my two cousins. I expected her to be broken. Instead she was calm. She said the marriage had been unhappy for ten years, and that staying had been harder than leaving. She said the shame was the family's, not hers.

Now, a year later, the family has slowly accepted it. My uncle comes to some events, my aunt to others, and the cousins go to both. My grandmother still doesn't talk about it. But last week she asked me to bring my aunt some cakes she'd made. That's how forgiveness works in my family — with cakes, not words.