Three years ago, we were both fed up. My husband wanted a divorce. I agreed. At that point in our marriage, we were fighting every time. My presence made him angry. His breath was so loud it made me want to disappear. It was terrible.

The fight was mostly around money. I was earning more so he wanted me to pay more. I felt he was giving me more financial burden than I could carry. That aside, he didn’t give me the respect I deserved as someone providing for the house.

He seized every opportunity to remind me that he was my husband; “Remember who’s the man of the house. I married you and not the other way round.”

I responded, “Then be the man. Behave like you indeed married me. Let your money do the talking and not your mouth.”

Cricket.

We didn’t talk for over a month. The next conversation was about divorce which I agreed to it.

He asked for the divorce but he didn’t have the money to file and make it official. Our parents were aware of the divorce. Friends were. Relatives got a hint. It was over. He left home. I was alone with the kids. He came back a week later. We still wanted to divorce. He was going to look for a place and move out. He found an agent who promised to find him a place in a week. A week turned to weeks and then to a month. He was always home.

He fixed the broken sink. He came home with paper glue to fix the wallpapers that were falling off. One afternoon I saw him fixing the socket. A man who wants to leave doesn’t fix what he will leave behind. I got the clue.

He asked for money for something and I gave it to him. He said, “I hope you won’t use it against me tomorrow. That I took your money.”

I chuckled. We talked. One minute. Two minutes. Seventeen minutes. An hour came to meet us still talking. Two hours later our faces lit up with smiles.

“So when is the agent going to call?” I asked. “Agent? Nooo there’s none.”

Three years later, we are stronger than the day we got married. We’ve never fought in three years. Not about money. Not about who’s the man of the house. Not about anything. We are happy today because we didn’t have money for divorce. Most importantly, we talked our way out of divorce to happiness.