Suckerpunch down to the wire

[labug]

I feel I DO need to be concerned with worrying about her life, as well as my own.

Dude, seriously....why?

We are each given one life to be in charge of, that's our own. Some of us get children for whom we're responsible for a few years but not nearly as long as some people think. That's another topic.

You are responsible for YOU.

You have plenty to do with working on you. Be friendly and cordial to W, but leave her to her path. Right now every time you interact you give her reminders of why she wants to end the marriage. Your words sound OK on the surface but there's an undercurrent of "you're so wrong W".

As far as showing her your changes, first of all you have to change and it has to be real, to the core change. Have you ever been in a place and see that telltale stain on the ceiling that indicates a leak somewhere? Instead of fixing the leak, they've tried to paint over it but it shadows through and soon, if there isn't a repair, the ceiling will fall in but the bigger damage will be the rotted roof.

You're trying to paint the ceiling. Start looking for where your leak is and fix what's damaged now.

You can do this.