It Is Finished

THAT case has been settled.

What, you may ask, is THAT case?

THAT case is a litigation case on which Herself's Beloved Husband has worked for years. It has been tremendously difficult and complex. In Herself's (admittedly biased) opinion, the opposing counsel in the case seems to have been excessively stubborn, confrontational, and at times rather unpleasant.  In Herself's view, the case should, and could, have been settled much earlier on in the process, but due to opposing counsel's recalcitrance, it continued.  Hours and hours and days and weeks and months, little tricky pieces, legal hoops through which to jump, this information, that detail, late nights and early mornings, all for Beloved Husband.  On and on and on and on.  The whole thing was rather a bit of a Horror. Through it all, Beloved Husband worked on it meticulously and patiently, keeping his professionalism even when things were quite contentious. 

 

Yesterday exemplified the matter:  just after the alarm clocks rang in the morning, Beloved Husband needed to respond to an urgent e-mail relating to THAT case. Fourteen hours later, as he sat on the couch after having just arrived home from the office, he awaited another e-mail authorizing him to settle the case.  Two hours after that, after Herself had brushed her teeth, donned her nightgown and tucked the dogs in for the evening, Beloved Husband received final word arrived with approval.  He went to his computer and filed the motion to dismiss the litigation.  

 

And a choir of heavenly angels sang Hallelujah. 

Herself is tremendously relieved for Beloved Husband.  It is as though the gods finally told Sisyphus, "you don't have to roll that boulder up the hill anymore."

As the dust settles, Herself contemplates all of the time that THAT case stole Beloved Husband away from her and from the Offspring, and all of the stress and frustration and worry that it caused him.  Sometimes she felt as though THAT case was siphoning years off of Beloved Husband's life.  Will they get those years back? No. 

She cannot think about the economic impact -- with naught to be gained with the settlement, any imagined monetary gain has (expectedly) evaporated.  It does not matter, though. No dollar amount could replace what was lost. 

Herself mulls over, too, the impact THAT case had on her.  It required extraordinary patience, perseverance, self-reliance and fortitude on her part:  to wait for a moment of Beloved Husband's undivided attention, knowing that he could not be with her or that his thoughts were elsewhere even when he was physically in the same room; to take care of all matters large and small in running the household and managing the children, so that he could focus on what he had to do; to handle or muffle her own needs, so that she would not place any extra burden on him. 

It was very painful at times. She tries not to be bitter. Sometimes, she fails. 

With time will come healing.  Beloved Husband is now free to work on other cases, other projects; or even his hobbies, his other goals - in short, he can now go on with the rest of his life. And Herself need not think about the toll of THAT case any more. She can rebalance herself and move forward.  Her scars from the experience will always be there, but they will fade - and in the right light, those scars will be reminders of her inner strength during the hard times.

If nothing else, she knows she helped Beloved Husband in her own way, as best she could, to get through this trial of his.  She is glad to have been able to do so.