Heyck says she got divorced in her 50s after her son turned 18.
“It was really more of a working relationship than a full marriage,” she says, and Heyck was emotionally ready to be on her own.
But the financial transition, she says, wasn’t easy. For years, she struggled to make ends meet, living with roommates and couch-surfing as she waited for a spot to open in income-adjusted senior housing.
“I was an artist. I lived on the edge financially. I didn’t have a 401(k) … I always thought that I would be married. That was the big surprise,” she says.
How was it a "big surprise" when it's implied that she wanted the divorce to happen? You have an unstable job, divorce your spouse, and then go all surprised Pikachu when it occurs to you that your finances are unstable?