As a former Witness who got baptized while married to a nominal Catholic, I have to say that I felt terribly guilty over introducing my new beliefs to my husband and daughters, and went out of my way to make sure he was at least only minimally impacted. Now, in retrospect, I see that this was not in any way, shape or form the actuality. I feel for him now. True, in everything that did not go against what I perceived at the time to be God's will, I bent over backward for the man. I went out of my way to make up for the things I had given up. I bought him gifts all the time; did whatever he wanted, stayed home from meetings if he expressed loneliness...He was a lazy dope smoking abuser, quite frankly, and I had to take it all in the name of wifely submission. With a smile, I might add. He never spent one minute of time with the kids while I, as a result, became hopelessly enmeshed, to say the least.
Still, I feel bad now. Our marriage was terrible, to put it mildly, a hotbed of abuse and neglect. But I can see now where this only made things worse. He said we had nothing in common once I stopped smoking dope and voting. So that tells you a little about what kind of "union" this marriage was. But I need to see it from his viewpoint: I was the one who left first. So he felt justified in leaving me for real after a few years of JW nonsense.
I was doing what I really believed to be right at the time. I hope he has forgiven me. I hope my children have forgiven me.
Beryl
