Captain A: Sorry to hear about the death of your friend. Suicide is a tragedy under any circumstances. Some say he doesn’t deserve sympathy, but clearly he was trying his best. Our distorted western society adjudged his best as not good enough. Too bad a few people here agreed with that. I don’t care for the smugness of those who have no sympathy.
The situation is as bad or even worse over here in Britain, where the 50-50 rule applies - whatever the circumstances. My ex-wife did bugger all in our marriage. Didn’t have children but didn’t want to go to work either, so tried to live her life through me. It could not go on, so in 1996 we put the marriage out of its misery. Despite the fact that she contributed nothing to our matrimonial home and had no money of her own, she was able to walk away with the house and a substantial proportion of my other assets.
I have never said a bad word against marriage, so sought encouragement from my remaining married friends. Trouble is, one by one they all started divorcing! One of those was Tom, who ran the village lawnmower shop. His wife Candy was a real gold digger. Tom had to move out of the house (his house) while the divorce was going on. Now Tom was not a wealthy man, and his house was, shall we say, humble. But guess what? He was ordered to give his wife HALF the equity he had in it, which was £60,000. So his wife got £30,000 for that. What an injustice! That house was Tom’s house, never hers. He had lived there since before he knew Candy, and to top it all, she was just about to move in with a man of means in a more prestigious house in a neighbouring village! She should not have been taking £30,000 from Tom. If anything, she should have been paying Tom back rent.
The story doesn’t end there. Despite Candy’s assurances to be fair (before the initial consultation with the divorce solicitor), she wanted more. Tom had a classic car – a Jaguar Mk2 – just like the one in the Inspector Morse series, only red. Candy wanted half of its value which, as a classic car, might have been valued at £15,000-£20,000. WTF!!! Why should she get half of that?!! That car was Tom’s, and had nothing to do with Candy, and nothing to do with the marriage.
But good for Tom – he sold that car to the owner of the house he moved to as surety for the rent payment. Sale price - £1. LOL. After the divorce, Tom having made good on his rent debts, the car was transferred back to him. And Candy? She now lives it up in Australia, where she moved with her new man and hers and Tom’s son, Tom junior. So Tom effectively has no access to his son, unless he makes the trip to Australia, which he has done once.
