I’ve been married for 31 years.

It’s coming to an end. A very unfortunate, avoidable, extremely painful end.

I’ve known her family well over half my life. We’ve broke bread together, celebrated births and birthdays together, holidays, funerals, family reunions, baptisms, and weddings together.

We laughed, fought, got drunk, told jokes, cooked, worked on cars, fished, hunted, and cried together.

It occurred to me today that eventually, I’m going to have to give them back. They love me, I know they do. They’ve showed me, told me, and proved to me that they do. But as the months go by, they’ve pulled back and started to bring her back into the fold. I know blood is thicker than water and they have their own issues to deal with. They realize that what she has done has affected all of the family and it’s painful for them to think about it…