I loved this woman. We were an intense couple, too, and lasted as lovers & “life partners” from December 2001 into August of 2012. We had privately married ourselves in May of 2005 and still formally, publicly, in July of 2009. Our divorce became final in July of 2013. We remain friends and consider ourselves the stepparents of each other’s children. Love is easy, but we make it difficult, to paraphrase the actor Liam Neeson. Life is messy. Family dynamics are complex. We currently live thru the breakdown of nuclear families as we build a new culture for humans who choose engagement.