Suzy Brown

In 2000 I was divorced after 33 years of marriage, and I did not do well with that.  I went from anger to despair to totally pissed and back again through every negative emotion imaginable.  I  then continued to endure three years of agony, embarrassment and pain before I came to my senses and filed for divorce.

I could easily be writing this entry from the State Penitentiary. I was that mad when I found out my was band who had promised to love honor and cherish me through sickness and health for better or for worse until we died, told me he had a girlfriend.

Suddenly everywhere I turned, women were telling me their similar stories of betrayal and divorce. All of us were trying to cope the best we could on our own, but we needed help. So I started a small support group in an effort to make the trip through this emotional jungle easier for all of us. I decided on the name “RADiCAL,” meaning…

We began to call ourselves the “Radical Women.” I asked a few of the women I knew who were going through a midlife divorce to meet every other week at my house. I put together a workbook to give some form to our first discussion because I was afraid we might all sit down around the table and just start crying and not be able to stop. I wanted some sort of agenda in hand to prevent that. As it happened, there were tears to be sure, but there was actually some laughing. My brother jokingly said that he would call during the first meeting, and if the only thing he heard in the background was uncontrollable sobbing, he would send help.

The first Radical group met on shaky legs, but after several years some of what we talked about led to my book Radical Recovery: Transforming the despair of your divorce into an unexpected good. Since then I haven’t stopped. I’ve been doing support groups, boot camps, expert interviews, TV appearances, articles, one-on-one mentoring, and everything you see here on our site.

If you’re reading this, chances are you are going through a divorce, and our side of the story is probably your side, too. None of us wanted to be divorced. But we had no choice. We gained strength and courage and confidence from each other every time we met. We hope you will benefit from our journey, too.