This Lady’s Ex Dodged A HUGE Bullet
Many years ago, I was hired as a receptionist for an attorney’s office. I was still young then — in my early twenties — and this was my first office job.
The attorney I worked for was a very nice man, and the law office was his father’s. His father had started the firm several years earlier, and [Attorney] had joined the firm about ten years earlier. His father ended up retiring due to health issues, so [Attorney] had taken over.
I was made aware that emotions run high and I may have a few angry clients calling in. If any got abusive, cursed, or threatened me, I could transfer them to [Attorney] and he would deal with them, but I was told I had to get their name first.
I had been at the firm for a little less than two weeks, and so far, the majority of the clients who called or came in were fairly nice to me. Some were rude or distraught but never abusive.
Then, I got a call from a hysterical woman. She demanded to speak to the attorney.
Me: “I can see if [Attorney] is available. May I tell him who is calling?”
Woman: “No. You may not. Just put him on the d*** phone.”
Me: “Hold for just a moment and I will check.”
Woman: “Stop talking, you idiot, and get him on the phone!”
I told [Attorney] about the caller on the line and what she had said. He rolled his eyes and said to put her through, which I did.
Toward the end of the day, [Attorney] approached me and said he needed to talk to me about the call from the hysterical woman.
At first, I thought I had done something wrong. I went back to his office, and he sat me down to talk.
Attorney: “For the lack of a better word, the insane woman you took the call from was not one of my clients. She is actually the ex-wife of a client whose divorce my father handled.”
He continued while I listened.
Attorney: “About ten years ago my father handled this divorce case for a man he knew. It was a very bad divorce, and I am aware of it because he told me about it. The man filed for a divorce from his wife because she was abusive. She kicked him, punched him, and even bit him. He had proof of all of this, and the wife had been arrested a few times, but when she went to court, she got a suspended sentence and was ordered to attend anger management classes. And it gets better. Do you want to hear the rest of it?”
I nodded.
Attorney: “The wife fought the divorce as she didn’t want it. She tried and tried, but the husband was not budging. Her family encouraged her and told her she needed to go through with it. Well, you would think that would have been the end of it. The husband was filing for sole custody of the two children, and she agreed to sign away her rights; she didn’t want the children). When she came in to sign the divorce papers, as she was reading them, something in them caught her eye, and she was livid. What do you think it was?”
Me: “She was going to have to pay child support anyway, or maybe she changed her mind?”
Attorney: “Neither. There was language in the divorce papers that said both parties would have the right to remarry, and she was furious. She said, ‘H*** no, he can’t remarry,’ and she threw the papers on the floor.”
Me: “Wow! So, what happened?”
Attorney: “We went to court, and she told the judge she wanted the language changed so that the husband would have no right to remarry.”
Me: “That’s crazy.”
Attorney: “Indeed, it is. She had a couple of outbursts in court and was threatened with contempt of court if she didn’t settle down. She told the judge her soon-to-be ex shouldn’t get to remarry ever because he still belonged to her.”
Me: “What did the judge say?”
Attorney: “He laughed at her and told her that both parties had the right, she couldn’t dictate that he couldn’t remarry, and it would stay in the agreement. So, she had another outburst and was in contempt of court. Anyway, her parents convinced her that there was nothing she could do and she needed to let it go. So, the husband got the divorce, and the language was left in there that both parties had the right to remarry.”
Me: “Is that what she was calling about? Was she trying to have it changed?”
Attorney: “There’s a little more I want to tell you first, so you can see how crazy this woman is. About five years ago, she contacted our firm saying she wanted to sue her ex-husband for dating again. My father got that call, and when she told him who she was, he realized it was part of that case. He told her she couldn’t do that, and he couldn’t help her or refer her to anyone else who could. He said it would be a conflict of interest. She got mad and accused my father of being in a conspiracy with her ex-husband to make her life miserable.”
Me: “Wow, that’s messed up. What was she calling about today?”
Attorney: *Sigh* “Well. When I asked her for her name, she gave her first name and maiden name, probably hoping to throw me off. She said that I had handled her divorce, and she wanted to sue her ex-husband for getting married again! I couldn’t find her in the files, so I asked if it was under a different name, and she gave me her ex-husband’s name. I remembered the case then. She said her ex had no right to remarry and he needed her permission. She just kept repeating that over and over.
“I told her I couldn’t help her and that, per her divorce decree, her ex had every right to remarry, and he didn’t need her permission. She said he should have at least asked her for permission, and she would’ve told him no. She asked, ‘What about me?’ So I told her to move on with her life.
“She asked, ‘What about me?’ again, insisted that he was still ‘hers’, and said she needed me to sue him. I told her that was not going to happen. I told her to answer her ‘What about me?’ question, she needed professional mental help, not a lawyer, and the conversation was over.
“She accused me and her ex of being in some conspiracy to make her life miserable. I told her she was doing that all on her own. Then, I told her not to call here again and hung up on her.”
Me: “That is completely the craziest thing I have ever heard.”
Attorney: “Well, this might do it: the ex-wife worked as a nurse at the hospital before getting fired after she abused her ex.”
Me: “That’s terrible. I wouldn’t want someone like that as my nurse.”
Attorney: “I agree. She is insane. Anyway, if you get any more calls from anyone else being abusive, send them to me right away. I don’t care if I am on a call. If I’m not here, you have my permission to hang up on them. I will not allow my staff to be mistreated.”
I stayed at the firm for about a year and then got another job. Luckily, while I was there, the crazy ex-wife didn’t call back, and I only had a handful of abusive callers whom [Attorney] had to deal with. I did have maybe two whom I had to hang up on.
Wow, those poor children. I’m glad the ex-husband got custody, and hopefully, the ex-wife got mental help. If not, she could be working at another hospital, which is scary to think about.
