Month: August 2014

August 2014

Lessons Learned from a Divorce Lawyer: A Tribute to Steve Lustgarten

August 28, 2014 / Uncategorized

He looked me up and down and appraised my earnest eyes and zealous attitude. He no doubt knew it was masking my nerves. His polyester suit made me feel silly as I stood in my crisp new one and my shiny shoes. He wore his experience and I, my “lack of” was an understatement. With every courageous objection I made during that trial, his eyes twinkled as he argued and educated both the court and me. It was my very first trial and I was matched against the most experienced divorce lawyer in Omaha, Steve Lustgarten. I was so new,

Simple Survival

August 21, 2014 / Uncategorized

Tim and I sat in back awaiting the arrival of the guests. It was a hot August afternoon. Just prior to our nephew’s wedding at St. Margaret Mary’s was not an ideal time to let the family know. In the cool, dark quiet I confided that I had filed for divorce the day before. My brother Tim could be counted on to keep the secret. We were good that way with each other. I was the fifth of eight children and he was the sixth. When he was sixteen he invited me to his room and promptly declared, “I’m gay.”

Depressed

August 14, 2014 / Uncategorized

This is a picture I took the day my divorce decree was signed. I was lying in bed feeling like I could stay there the rest of my life. What you can’t tell is that I am lying on a tear-soaked pillow. That morning, I could have sworn there were about three hundred pounds of weight stacked on top of me, preventing me from getting out of bed. I took this picture for my clients – past, present, and future. I took it to remind myself of how it felt – how it felt gray and sad and shameful to

Red Flags

August 7, 2014 / Uncategorized

She told him not to open the wooden chest. What secret was inside such that she steered her young new husband away? Red flag. More than once she warned him not to snoop. When his curiosity got too great, he lifted the lid. Two certificates from prior marriages were inside. Laura had been married twice before, but he knew that. Evidence of two marriages, but divorce documents from only one. Red flag. It was the first spring after their September South Dakota wedding and time to file taxes. Not unlike many, Laura procrastinated about the process. On the forms, she