Marriage isn’t always a walk in the park.
Luckily for us, this isn’t the year 1427. If you’re unhappy in a marriage, you have every right to get a divorce. Though divorce can be heartbreaking and stressful, it doesn’t always have to be.
What starts fast has a pretty good chance of ending fast.
If you decided on a whim to get engaged and married within a span of weeks, days, or even hours, you have the cards stacked against you in terms of marriage longevity.
Okay, true, that isn’t always the case.
But it’s usually a good idea to get to know your lover well before jumping into anything contractual. For every happily married pair of high school sweethearts, there’s a couple like Catherine and Marc.
This couple met and married quicker than most.
Catherine Navarro from New Jersey only got engaged a week before her wedding to then-husband Marc. The dramatic proposal happened at her cousins wedding reception — further proof that it’s very bad luck to get engaged at someone else’s wedding.
It was a whirlwind from start to finish.
“Honestly, I thought he was joking at first because we’d been drinking and were on a dance floor in that moment,” she explained, “but a few days later he followed up about my dress and flowers.”
Not long after saying ‘I Do,’ the problems began to start.
“I realized not long into the marriage that I didn’t know him at all and there were too many secrets. The first divorce proceeding started approximately seven years ago…I tried to file for divorce multiple times, but he refused to sign the papers.”
Then, he vanished.
One day, Marc vanished off the face of the planet and Catherine didn’t have the slightest clue where he’d gone.
Filing for divorce from The Invisible Man is harder than you’d think.
Catherine talked about the lengthy process involved. “When this sort of thing happens, when you can’t find your husband anywhere, and desperately want to cut legal ties, there’s an option to file for divorce in their absence — but you have to prove you’ve looked everywhere.”
After many long years, the divorce was finalized.
Catherine was finally granted the divorce after proving that she tried to look for Marc, but was unsuccessful. She initially filed for divorce in 2012 — that’s seven years of searching! I think you should be allowed to throw a party when it takes you seven years to do anything, let alone divorce a guy who disappeared on you.
Ultimately, it was the right decision for her.
“I was so excited to finally have my maiden name back and be rid of him. It made me so happy. As soon as it was finalized I felt like I was 20 again and had a new chance at love.”
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She decided to hold a ‘Divorce Party’ to celebrate her newfound freedom.
“Party highlights included a decadent cake which had ‘straight out of marriage’ written on it, surrounded by happy photos of me when I was single,” she explained. “We had cupcakes with custom made toppers that had cheeky phrases on them, such as ‘boy, bye’.”
Forty of her closest friends joined in the festivities.
They had an assortment of festive props, and even had a sign that read ‘we didn’t like him anyway’.
“We ate, laughed and danced the night away. It was fantastic.”
“I’d definitely recommend a divorce party to anyone else.”
“Everything happens for a reason,” she says, “and for me in the end it all happened for the best. Don’t dwell on the past and instead accept the lessons that every experience provides.”
Enjoy being a single lady, Catherine!
We’re glad that Catherine is happily living her best life. You go girl!
h/t USA Today
