Part 3 “. .. AND FROM THIS MOMENT PLEASE IN MORE DETAIL”

Part 3 “. .. AND FROM THIS MOMENT PLEASE IN MORE DETAIL”. Today is 7 February 2021. It turns out there is a holiday in Norway — Fire Extinguisher’s Birthday. I think it turned 150. In Norway every house has such a thing. Its place is in the corner of the hall, at the entrance. But it is terribly heavy! God forbid one should have to use it! All right, I will not think about that.

Because I promised (myself) to write about relations with Ivan’s daughters. I want to stress this: I do not call them stepdaughters, or myself a stepmother, because they have a mother. I have no right to condemn her act — I am not acquainted with her, I have only seen a photo, but there was a moment when I was indignant.

And it was like this (I am still writing about my tourist period of life in Norway). We went for a walk with the dog, and then the phone rang. I understood that it was she calling. The conversation was short, in Norwegian (I did not understand yet then), and Ivan tells me that she dictated conditions to him before she would sign the divorce paper. She demands a one-time cash settlement and monthly alimony payments to her until the younger daughter turns 21, that is, full majority. And the younger daughter was then only 15.

Ivan said he would pay everything she asked. I asked why they were divorcing without a lawyer. He said that with a lawyer it is expensive. And it is better than dividing all the property, and the most expensive thing is the house. “Yeees! They divorce interestingly here,” I thought.

By Norwegian law, if a family breaks up, the parents’ duties are divided equally. In practice the children live two weeks with the mother, two with the father. But if a divorced mother does not want to live in Norway, it is practically impossible for her to take the child with her. And in Ivan’s family it was precisely that case, when the underage children stayed with the father, who at the same time, by law, was also the guardian, because he was financially provided for. At the same time he also paid monthly alimony to the healthy, young 40-year-old mother of his children, living not in her native country but in Spain, and possibly “with someone.”

I confess honestly, I did not feel very comfortable then. It seemed to me that she might come back and I would find myself “in a situation.” I shared my doubts with Ivan, but he firmly assured me that everything had long been decided, and the material part of the question was simply the concluding chord of his former family life.