Broken engagements

It's that awkward conversation when you ask someone, "So when's the wedding?" and she says, "oh, the engagement is off."
Awkward pause. "Oy, I'm so sorry to hear that." Her response: "Don't be, it's for the best."

Yes, I'm sure it is. Yes, everything is up to G-d and He has a reason for everything that happens. Yes, you were not meant to spend the rest of your life with this person. The right person is still out there and he/she is waiting for you.

People want to share good news. Websites announce engagements. They are a happy occasion, a time to rejoice with the couple who has just made one of the biggest decisions of their lives. But how must it feel to have to retract that? To say, we made a mistake, we jumped in too fast, we just found stuff out about each other that is a game changer. Some people say that it is easier/better to have a broken engagement than to be married for years and then get divorced due to differences that could not be worked out. I don't know if you could say that unless you have experienced it.

There are no websites for broken engagements, no place to let everyone know that the wedding invitation was not lost in the mail, it is not coming. Returned gifts, returned dress, returned wigs. All that excitement and joy gets put back into a box and shoved under a bed not to be taken out for awhile.

The right decision is definitely not always easy, and it is made harder when it is such a public thing. Some nosy people always try to pry or guess at the reason for the decision, and it makes the people involved that much more uncomfortable.

It must be hard to walk down the street and have people say, "When is the lechaim/wedding?? I'm so sorry I missed it, I was out of town." And you breezily tell them that no, they did not miss it and that the wedding is off, while keeping that perfectly practiced smile glued on your face until it feels like it will crack and you just wish that people would stop giving you that pitying sigh and saying 'oy, G-d willing it will be good.' Of course it will be good, because you made a decision that was right for you. And that should not be a sad thing.

I do not speak from experience, thank G-d, although someone close to me did experience this. I don't even want to imagine what it feels like, and I hope to G-d that the moment I say "YES!" I am 100% absolutely sure that I mean it.