Divorce

They were divorcing. I do not remember them shouting at each other. I remember she was showing me blue marks on her arms. She moved out with their two children into a small apartment in one town. In the search for better job and better apartment they moved to another town. Children went to school, she worked and kept apartment clean. It looked like everything will calm down eventually. One afternoon she went to pick up her children at school and was told their father came earlier and already picked them up. He took them to his parents. She made a frantic attempt to get them back, but his parents home was a fortress. She was seeking for help, came home to her mother. Her mother was a widow, had younger children to take care of and she was a foreigner in the country. Why did he do it? Did he take children like hostages to win her back, or was it revenge? Revenge for what? I remember her being skinny, chain smoking, and taking long walks in the woods. At the court she was told if she will remarry and have a home for the children, she might get them back. "He took, what was dearest to me." She didn't have visitation rights and trips were costly. Her ex-husband came one time with their children. "He was holding their hands so hard, they turned white." She remarried rather hastily, but never got over lost of her two children. Copyright (c) Marie Neumann Pottsville, 2010