Divorced and Remarried Within a Year
Words by Yoanella Blanco
I was the kind of woman other women feel jealous of. I was married and we had a beautiful daughter. We were both very successful in our careers and had a high lifestyle. People used to say that we were the perfect couple.
My now ex got an opportunity to move to US as an expatriate. After a year, his company closed without notice and we had to come back home to Spain. The next two years were hard with my ex unemployed. I think he got depressed. He would spend the days watching the news, sleeping, playing games, or watching soccer games in the bar. I started my own marketing business while doing my best to keep the family together. But things got worse, he lost a lot of weight, he wouldn’t shave, he wouldn’t buy clothes in the right size. He was mistaken with being homeless a few times. There was no way for him to spend family time.
We decided to move to Punta Cana as I am half Dominican thinking that he was going to have more chances to find a job and have his life back again. He was alert all the time. Any small inconvenience was a big deal for him. He started acting out even in front of our children. Something inside me was telling me it was the end but I was thinking it was not the right moment in a practical sense.
But then I lost my main client, the one that was paying the highest fee and something clicked in me when he asked me, "how are you going to pay the bills?" Savings won’t last forever. I felt so mad and was so disrespectful to him that day that just thought I could not do this to either of us. We were together for 16 years, and 13 were good. So, the next day I asked him for the divorce and I also told him I wanted to meet new people and have a new partner.
I was not expecting to fall in love. At 38, I thought I didn’t have ability for that anymore, but I wanted some companionship. I was so lonely for the past two years. Funny enough I met my husband the second day I got online but back then I could not consider we could have a relationship as he was in Canada. So, while I was dating and getting to know some local men, we kept talking and suddenly he was all my world. I was crazy in love with someone I never met in person. I talked to my friends about him and the only one that encouraged me was my mom, all my friends were very negative. The common message was that as a mother I couldn’t do anything as crazy as get involved in a long-distance relationship.
He came to visit after 6 months of online chatting and it was amazing. It felt like we always knew each other. After 2 more visits, he proposed and we got engaged. Most of my family and friends disapprove. Some said I was being selfish and childish. But I did not pay attention. We got married in a beautiful wedding in the beach just 7 months after first time we met in person. We have been married for a year and in a few weeks, it’s going to be a year since I moved to Canada. I am happier than I could ever imagined. What’s more my daughter is rocking the ninth grade and my children are very happy here.
Yoanella is a forty-year-old Spanish/Dominican woman living in Canada. She is mother of 2 children: a proud wife of an amazing Portuguese man. She has worked 13 years in corporate mainly in marketing and communication both in travel/tourism and fashion. Over 4 years ago, she jumped into creating her own business and now she is transitioning to beauty with a new beauty/lifestyle box featuring cruelty-free and artisan items: Miss Blanco Joyful Box.
