Take You Wherever You Go by Kenny Leon

Author:Kenny Leon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2018-06-05T04:00:00+00:00

Independence and a Parting

In 1990, I was in a pretty good place. I was running the major theater company in Atlanta, and my wife was the top actress in town. No one made any charges of nepotism because, frankly, everyone wanted to work with her. I’d have been a fool not to have Carol work with us at the Alliance.

Christmas Day in 1991 brought the most amazing gift, but one that would change everything.

That day, the hospital called to say there was a kidney available for Carol. And after she received the kidney, her life changed. And so did mine.

She reclaimed her independence and, to be honest, didn’t really need me to navigate her medical issues and the accommodations that went along with them. But, as we soon discovered, my playing that role was instrumental in maintaining the closeness of our relationship, our marriage.

Her attitude, however subtle and below the surface, was:

OK. Now I’m back to myself. I don’t need all this help.

What this transformation showed was that, in the end, we were the greatest of friends. And we probably should have just remained friends.

Make no mistake. The day she got her kidney transplant was beautiful. Soon after, we turned in that CAPD and celebrated. But as time passed, it became evident that we had different interests and some distance set in between us. Her health had bound us together in a loving way, but her health had dramatically improved. Those bonds loosened.

Before we got married, I’m pretty sure she felt that she wasn’t my type. And her attitude was, That’s my brother. That’s the way it always was in her head.

But once we got together, she likely romanticized it all a little bit.

Here we are, the top two actors in Atlanta. And now Kenny’s become a director, and he’s running the big theater company. We’re supposed to be together.

She also knew I had her back. She knew she could count on me. And while I’m no saint, our first five years of marriage had pretty much backed that idea up. I was there for her. But after she got her kidney, months went by and I started to feel a change. It seemed to me we now wanted different things.

Before we got married, I should have asked Carol some very important questions. I should have found out her attitude toward family, religion, romance, and other meaningful things. We assumed we knew each other well enough when her medical condition drew us closer. But when her health improved, we lost that reason to be so close. I didn’t need to take care of her anymore, and that changed everything.

After the next four or five years, things really fell apart but we didn’t divorce. By year seven or eight, I was looking around at other possibilities in life, but I didn’t want to do the wrong thing either.

As usually happens, things got tough when we had to break apart. I didn’t like doing it, but I also knew it was long overdue.

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