When a Man Loves a Woman
My wife is on day 7 in a treatment facility thousands of miles from home. In fact I just flew home this evening from a family visitation weekend where she and I were allowed to spend quite a bit of time together. Tonight as I drove from the airport to my home she got a minute to call me and sounded great. She said she just watched the movie When a Man Loves a Woman and wanted me to because it is about what we are dealing with almost exactly and since I have a 2 hour time change tonight and knew I would have trouble going to sleep I decided to watch it.
If you haven't seen the movie its about a man and his wife who have a very happy loving marriage and alcohol is obviously a big part of how they have fun together. The couple in this movie really is exactly like me and my wife. In fact scarily so. The wife has an episode that goes way over the line, reluctantly goes to rehab, ends up feeling very much at home there and making tons of friends as she always does (just like my wife) and then has an even harder time going home. After not being able to deal with coming back together they separate but as it always works in Hollywood they get back together in the end.
Today before I left, she literally said it scares her to death to even think about coming home. 4 years ago we separated and divorced then remarried 3 years ago. Since then things have been great, I love her more today than ever before but I honestly don't think I can go through that again. It scares me that this movie serves as an example she wanted me to see. I hope she isn't trying to prepare me for what she already believes is inevitable. Hence the way I found this forum when the movie ended and I searched for wether or not a marriage can survive recovery.
She's only been there seven days and already she has deep friendships and tons of people looking to her as a mentor. I am happy for her in this regard but fear that I am going to be the one to lose in this situation.