A little too intense for me.

Having almost all of my extended family around was wonderful...seeing them leave reinforced my feeling of being very alone in all this. (Mom & Dad are spending the week with son#2 and me.)

I had a nice chat with one brother-in-law who went through a difficult breakup before he married my sister. He reassured me that life goes on after the train wreck gets cleaned up.

Chris.

I found that it was difficult for about a year after my divorce to be with my family - I have a brother who was married and a single sister, and they regularly got together with my parents. Although we all lived a few hours away from each other so it was only once a month or so.

It was hard because I had to hide so much of my emotions since we tend to not talk, it was hard because back then my brother and his wife seemed to be the perfect couple, with their new baby, and my mom and dad were at that time around their 35th anniversary. I felt like a complete failure and found myself shunning their company to be with dates and to just be alone. If they were all getting together for the whole weekend I would usually show up for an afternoon.

After a year or so I as my emotions settled down I felt closer to them and began spending more time with them. We went on some memorable trips together and while they all nearly drove me crazy sometimes I am glad that I made the effort.

It does take a while to feel good about yourself and find a way to act in the new role you have been forced into playing. Even though I am an intorvert and meeting new people and discussing life stories is pretty close to torture, I met so many people who were divorcing or had been divorced, and I began to realize that I wasnt such a second class citizen, that many others are in the same boat.