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PPP LIFE STORIES
When Relationships End, But Emotional Ties Linger
The marriage was over; we’d lived apart for years, but he agreed to help me begin a new life he had absolutely no intention of sharin
There was no question in either of our minds that Joe’s visit to France would ever be more than temporary. “This is your adventure, Janny,” he’d often say. “I have no desire to live in France.” And, as he’d also often say, “I have children, grandchildren, a home. I’m not like you; I can’t just take off and leave everything behind.”
Joe wasn’t the only one who expressed similar opinions. “I couldn’t do it, leave my family,” a friend had e-mailed, “But if you’re at peace with your decision, so be it.”
If I’d previously been at peace with my decision, I was less so after her e-mail. Even thinking about it more than a decade later stirs up difficult emotions. My son had given it his blessing, although I rarely hear from him now. Only geography separates me from my daughter and son-in-law, my friend Kit; emotionally there’s no distance. All this, I suppose, by way of saying I didn’t entirely leave everything behind.
Joe agreed to fly with me to Paris, then drive the rental car down to the place I’d leased sight unseen…
