Just wanted to say hello and thank you for all of your comments. When I finally figured out this was not the truth it was nice to know I wasn't the only one - it was a surprise to learn how many there are.
February was my last month of service after 43 active years. The same as others - overlapping generation - you have to be kidding! What I was very disturbed about was the change on typical/antitypical. It was obvious I had been lied to. So I had been to meetings for years and studied and tried to learn all that stuff to find out years later none of it was true. I felt totally deceived. Long story short - I began to research staying totally away from apostate websites of course. I gave my husband little hints along the way as I was learning, but he never said anything. Finally one morning I asked him - if 1914 is wrong what would you do? He said that would be it - I quit!!!! So I waited and kept studying and learning. I did not want to destroy his faith but I couldn't do this anymore.
So one day I told him I have to talk to you about something very important. I do not believe this is the truth and I can never go in service again and deceive people. If you want me to I will go with you to the meetings and conventions but I do not believe it. My husband was VERY discouraged anyway. He was a former elder and had lost his enthusiasm for the truth. I asked him if I could show him the things I had learned. After all, I could be wrong and I would love to hear what he had to say. He was very open minded and March was his last month of service and we never went back to the Kingdom Hall.
About a year before all of this we began to take ballroom dancing. (Of course I just signed us up because I knew he would never agree to take dance lessons!!) After dance we would receive invitations to go get a drink - but no - they are worldly, we could never do that.
We had recently moved and our new congregation was not welcoming. The friends at the Kingdom Hall just said hello - especially the elders, we rarely received an invitation. It was pathetic. We have always had the friends over and I have cooked and cooked and I told my husband I am not doing it anymore. So there you go - if you don't ask them to come over you have no friends.
We started taking dance lessons at a new place and this time when they asked us to go out after dance we said yes. Wow! We were not judged, there was no bad language, people were actually interested in us. All of the couples have been married for years, no immorality, no overdrinking. Not at all what I expected. So as we started to made our exit out of the "truth" we have had endless invitations, we have something to do every weekend. We have had several of the couples to our home for a meal and they too have invited us.
(Sorry I wanted this to be short) So I have read about a lot of lonely people and my heart breaks for you. But if you can find something you enjoy doing (actually my husbands loves dancing now!) it really takes some of the pain away. We also told them that we were Jehovah's Witnesses and had been for years and we were leaving. They had lots of questions and were very supportive. We helped them understand that we would now be totally shunned and they really included us and we have become friends with all of them.
I am so glad to be free. I hate that I have wasted most of my life in a dream bubble wasting my time, but I am free.
One of these days I will tell you the rest of the story.