This is the third in a series of posts about the experiences, feelings, and healing journey of two sisters, who are adult children of gray divorce. Read the previous post here.

For over 30 years, couples over 50 have been divorcing in record-setting numbers worldwide. Researchers have named this phenomenon "The Gray Divorce Revolution" and predict it will triple by 2030. The adult children of these divorcing couples frequently say they are unprepared to handle what is happening in their family and feel painfully alone.

I spoke with Sophia and Eleana* (not my patients), two sisters who were adults when their parents began their divorce process. Sophia is a 27-year-old journalist based in the UK, and Eleana is a 30-year-old talent management/development expert and a career coach living in Germany.

Carol: You refer to the "limbo phase" of your parents' divorce journey. What was the most significant for you during that phase?

Eleana: The most significant way that the limbo phase impacted me was in my relationship with our father because it made it even harder for me to rebuild trust with him. It was a phase of almost promises. Those were either communicated promises or promises that I would try to derive from a situation. It often led to situations of disappointment. That made it harder for me to rebuild a neutral relationship with our father.

Carol: What other difficulties arose for you at that time?

Eleana: Another significant difficulty for me in the limbo phase was that I could tell how much our mother was struggling as the person who........

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