Between Marriages BETWEEN MARRIAGES
T
his story is short because I remained single a mere six months. Dick saw the children very often, we had agreed that the more frequent, the better. To boot, he bought a farm in Gilmanton Iron Works, New Hampshire and took the children up there frequently. Although he was a highly critical man and father, he was immensely proud of his children and remained involved in their lives. My children were doing well. But Wendy, the eldest, was sad that her dad was not living with us anymore. I had previously prepared her for this but she had forgotten. Understandable. Luckily, she had a bevy of friends. Billy and Douglas were too young to feel the difference, especially since Dick was often available. We had an agreement that they would see him whenever he wanted. One hitch was that I was left with a dog named Fufu which had belonged to Dick. She had gotten old, and required care that I was unprepared to give. With some hesitation, I marched her down to the dog hospital and pronounced her Dick Gorlin’s dog whom I was dropping off, gave them Dick’s number and took off. Dick and I did much better separated than we did together. We never argued over splitting up possessions. I stayed friendly with his parents – although Poppy and Nina (my parents) never forgave Nana (Dick’s mom) due to arguments over tablecloths and the like at our wedding many years prior. As a recent divorcée, I met and dated a number of young men. While that sounds unexceptional, after experiencing two stressful years of a failing marriage, I was immensely relieved to be free, meeting new people, feeling good about myself, having novel places to visit. I was busy, felt like a teenager, and enjoyed the novelty of different beaus, with whom I went sailing, dining, and hiking. I think I will leave it at that. Except that one incident deserves a place in history. While dating a gentleman from Providence, I inadvertently had left a compromising
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