The world lost a giant of a human being this past week with the untimely passing of Monica Getz.
Monica, whom I met a number of times and was actually in a community group with me for while, was the founder of the Coalition for Family Justice, an organization that was dedicated to helping people in a divorce avoid the pitfalls of the legal process.
I met Monica around 2014 when my marriage became estranged, and she sat down with me and had a warm conversation. She asked if I wanted to pay for my children’s college tuition or my lawyer’s kid’s tuition. That got my attention. I learned about collaborative divorce in the numerous meetings I attended, and the result was that my kids were not collateral damage in a legal battle. We, my ex wife and I, crafted our own agreement, and even though the marriage dissolved and we both moved on in our separate lives and households, I still saw my children every day.
Let me say that again. I saw my children every day after my divorce. Every day after school the bus dropped them off at my house, and I was Ward Cleaver from 3-6 when their mother would come and get them to her house for dinner and bed. We worked out many other things as well, and over the years I sold my ex wife her next 2 homes. We worked out our own arrangements for expenses, holidays, vacations, graduations, birthdays, and everything else like adults authoring their own lives. No court or legal clause dictated how we’d live.
For all that and more, for my relationship with my children, for the hours and memories I got to spend with them, I have Monica to thank.
The coalition helped thousands of people the same way. She was on 60 Minutes, and her obituary, linked above, ran in the NY Times. She was a big deal, and for all the right reasons.
May she live on in the incredible lives she enriched. God bless that woman’s memory. Rest in peace my friend.
