Picture perfect marriage

"We had this picture-perfect marriage." Clint R.

It sure seemed that way to anyone who was looking. Pretty bride. Up and coming executive husband. Can't you just see the wedding pictures? Lots of smiles. Can you hear the parents boasting? Lots of money got spent. Lots of booze flowed and there were frequent surreptitious trips to the bathrooms.

None of the expectations of the parents ever fit the couple like a glove. Then the booze and the drugs steadily and, later, quickly brought the couple and its picture-perfect life to their knees. The marriage no longer looked like what the parents had boasted about. Something had to happen and it did. What happened was traumatic at first, then puzzling, and finally became heart-warming.

Somehow the speaker of the quote found recovery. The traumatic part revolved around issues like the loss of his job, his need to leave the home to go to treatment, and then life in a halfway house in another community. It didn't look like even Humpty Dumpty could put this picture back together.

The puzzling part is that the family refused to break apart. Cracked, yes. Broken, no. The couple started communicating better long distance than they did while living in the same house. Then came the heartwarming part. The individuals started seeing who they were and that the other appealed to them. They liked each other's emerging self better than they like what had been boasted about them. They were becoming real, as was their relationship.

This story took time, grace and work. It does not happen for everyone, but it does happen.

By: Michael L.