The Third Gilmore Girl

by Kelly Bishop

First came something I never thought I’d see: after eighteen years of a miserably unhappy marriage, my parents got divorced.

Anyone who’s married to an addict who shows no interest in doing anything about it needs to be prepared for the probability that sooner or later, the only hope of surviving intact is to get out. I felt like a failure in my mission to “fix” him, but I knew staying was not an option.

I’d never felt any religious or spiritual guilt about abortions, and I never did understand the justification behind legislating them. I was very grateful that abortions were legal when my need for one came along in 1978, but to be perfectly honest, I’m sure I would have found an illegal way to terminate this pregnancy if it had come to that, since as far as I was concerned, it was my only responsible option.

“Honestly, when I look at my future without Lee, I see a blank, endless plain, like a desert with nothing on it, no matter where I look—no trees, no distant mountains, no colors, no nothing. I’ve gotten so lost that I can’t even find myself.”