Monday, April 4

I Broke the Law for Love!


Back in 1997 I met the greatest guy in the world, and then on April 10, 2001 I married him...which is funny because I was technically still married to my first husband. Yes, that's right, I was a bigamist...but I was a bigamist unawares! Seriously! OK your Honor, here's how it all happened:

When I was 29, my dear love and I met, and fell in love pretty much from the word 'go', but I had married at the age of 22, and although we'd separated a year earlier, we had not yet gone forward with the divorce for different reasons. I couldn't afford the expenses involved and he was not willing to officially end it. So there we were, living apart, but still married. This 'limbo' was set on the back burner as we both pursued new lives, and my (now) husband (whom I'll refer to from here on as "Doug" because that's his name) pretty much made it known to me that he wanted to be married.
FINALLY at the age of 33, I was tired of wasting time, and I found the right lawyer at the right price who got down to business and before I knew it, he called me and said, "Michele, the hearing is next week and I've gotten permission to represent you so you don't have to travel back to Maryland." Yay!! I was about to have a fresh start and I didn't even have to set my wheels in the courtroom! The day of the hearing came (April 10th, 2001), and my attorney called me to announce that my divorce had been granted...I giddily told Doug, who said, "Let's go get married!"

WHOA!!

Wait a minute, mister...this is all a bit sudden! :) But my protest fell on deaf ears, and before I knew it, I was in the magistrates office saying, "I do."

Little did I know that once a judge had granted you a divorce, the paperwork still had to be approved, stamped, and filed with the clerk of the court...so my divorce is dated May 30, 2001, at which time I'd been married to Doug for 50 days! Whoops!

Anyway, we're about to celebrate 10 years of illegal bliss! ♥

12 comments:

Karen Mortensen said...

What a story. I hope you are all legal now.

Team Chastain said...

We're legal...he's stuck with me! :)

Kat's Out o'the Bag said...

LMAO!! I thought Patrick and I were bad. We lived together for 4yrs and had a kid while both were married to someone else. His divorce was final in Jan 06, mine in Sept 06, and we married in Oct 06. LOL

Debbie Baker Burns said...

Funny story! Obviously, a person must get checked out more when they go to buy a car than when they go to get married. I think you can blame this one on red tape! Thanks for stopping by my blog earlier and commenting. I love finding new blogs and meeting new bloggers. I checked out your other blog, too. I will be back to check out that pasta recipe again. It sounded good.

Kim@stuffcould.... said...

Great for 10 years, yeah we have these legal roller coasters. I mean technical not criminal, I hope :)
kim

Unknown said...

What a great story Michele! Too funny! I'm glad you are legal now! What an interesting tidbit about you! Thanks for sharing!

WheelchairDecor said...

Michele,
This is too funny...good thing no one legal found out! lol
Doug is awesome!
love ya, Becky Jane

WheelchairDecor said...

Side Note: are the bars on the heart symbolical? (sinister snicker)
lol
Becky Jane

Tracy said...

Ahhh, good for you...sometimes I get the desire to 'break the rules' because I do everything by the book! Great story! It was nice meeeting you...

SimonasKitchen Simona Cherubini said...

I like this story! Here in Italy we're so used to this kind of strange illegal situationa, that's quite normal! :-)))

Unknown said...

You too had an ex who didn't want to do anything about getting a divorce huh? It took 6 months of pushing and me paying for everything to get mine finalized last year. :-) And another 6 weeks after judge signed for it to be "official" in court documents!

Corine Moore said...

LOL! :D What a great story! Thanks for the laugh! ;)