A Divorce After 50 Years That She Soon Regretted

Margaret began to wonder: Is this all that’s left?

Friends her age were rediscovering themselves—traveling solo, starting businesses, even finding new love. Social media painted late-life reinvention as empowering and exciting. Compared to that, her life felt small.

When she finally told Thomas she wanted a divorce, he didn’t shout. He didn’t plead. He simply looked stunned and asked, “After all this time?”

She took his quiet acceptance as confirmation that the marriage had run its course.