Bounce Back In Style 2nd Edition Feb/March/April | Page 59

Bouncing Back
From Divorce

My name is Dawniel Patterson Winningham and I was born in a very small
town in TN. The name of the town is Pulaski and our claim to fame is that we
happen to have been the birth place of a racist organization call the Ku Klux
Klan.
During the time and in the place in which I grew up we didn’t have much but
it wasn’t until I was grown that I realized it. Although I am an only child I
was raised among my mother’s siblings which made for a very large family.
While we didn’t have much by today’s standards we always had plenty of
food, enough to share with others, plenty of clothes, even if they weren’t
brand new, and plenty of love from everyone in the community.

Growing up we were always taught to work hard, get a good job, settle
down, raise your kids and be happy with what you have. So that’s what I
did. For 16 years I was married, raising my family and working as a VP
in fortune 10 firm. Until one day that I realized that I just was NOT happy.

My husband and I hadn’t gotten along well for years, through no fault of
mine or his, just one of those relationships that had run its course and we
were together primarily for child rearing. Thinking that he would continue to support the kids I made the choice of leaving the relationship to be
alone.

Leaving the relationship caused a financial hardship that I was not prepared for. Although I had a great job I was NOW primarily responsible
for almost 100% of the household responsibility with very little to no
help from my ex. My mental wheels started to spin as to what I would do
to close the gap between what we had and what we needed, and I won’t
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