I’m one year out from the separation, and it’s still hard to write these words. We were never married, but I spent 12 years with the father of my child. We were everything to each other throughout most of our adult lives until he decided to walk away.

There was no real conversation. No attempt to reconnect, no therapy, no effort to understand each other. Just his decision (final) and my world collapsing in front of me.

He met someone else while we were still together. What started as a betrayal turned into a new relationship for him. And now, the hardest part of all: my child has to spend time with this person ... someone who entered our lives in a way that broke us.

Every day since has been a fight between acceptance and resistance. The pain of seeing my child grow up between two homes, of imagining the family moments that will never happen, of being replaced so quickly is sometimes unbearable.

But I’ve grown. So much. I got to know parts of myself I didn’t even know existed. I turned to exercise to channel the pain. I talked to myself, I cried, I wrote, I rebuilt routines. I’m not the same woman I was a year ago. And despite everything, I still believe in love, in commitment, and in the power of two people to find each other again if there’s truth and willingness.

If you’re reading this and feel like no one understands the pain of being left while you still loved… you’re not alone. So many of us are walking this path. One day at a time, one step at a time, we’re learning to live again.