My bipolar soon-to-be-ex-husband left me with an almost 11 acre property with a house I couldn’t sell, courtesy of him, and a business that I started 20 years ago, but that he had killed, versus selling for gobs of money.  He went through all of our right-on-target retirement savings before moving in with his mommy and daddy 2 years ago.  He *just* turned 52 last week. 

I don’t expect that he’ll ever be able to live alone again.  It is courtesy of his parents that I finally started getting child support money this March after 2 years of his not working at all. I couldn’t have forced him.  They could.

So, I’ve been dealing with strenuous things like getting securities licenses and starting a new career.  Not to mention, keeping the giant property fire safe, learning to fix machines he’d ignored, without the owners manuals he took with him, etc.  All while struggling to feed the daughters, and support them.   I’ve had three years of going from being quite well off, to worrying desperately about how to fix a broken irrigation pipe and buy gas and food.

You want to do something strenuous?  Challenging?  I invite you here!  Pay the bills, be the mother! Keep up the chores!   

Constance

who thinks that the question is fine, if not very tactful.  Ditto the response.

I would have to say, (as documented in my book, with gracious and generous permission) treating, in my therapeutic  specialty,  Candice Bergen, Oliver Stone, and Jane Fonda.  It pushed every cerebral,  visceral and clinical instinct in my brain to the max.  Treating legends such as these can also prove to have a transcendent, almost out of body  effect.  I’m quite sure I’ll never be the same. 

the hardest, most challenging thing I’ve done was to become a mother……nothing is harder than that….nothing.

The second greatest challenge of my life was writing my book, which was like walking off a cliff.  No doubt in my mind, were it not for  the combined muse, illumined creative intellect and lofty influences of the legends  I have been so blest to treat, I could never have done  it.  I’d still be staring at the clock,  a blank screen  and all that advance money I’d have to give back.

The grief of losing loved ones is by far one of the hardest things I’ve had to do in my life.  Be it through death or just someone passing through my life.  The most grueling and challenging thing by far was joining the Marine Corps when I was 19.  I was scared and lonely and then became a confident young woman who went on to achieve some wonderful things for myself and others.  All thanks to my mom for signing those papers allowing me to join.