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"Oh readers, sometimes I just wish I could crawl through the monitor and hug you. Yesterday was one of those times. Reader Sherry poured her heart out in a comment, telling me about her situation and her very real fears about facing divorce. My heart went out to you, Sherry. I know how scary all of this is (and thank you, Yamil, for answering her with some valuable information). I&amp;#039;d like to add my voice as well. You asked how you get through this. Here&amp;#039;s where I think you need to start: 1). Call a lawyer. I know you&amp;#039;re thinking you can&amp;#039;t afford it. Maybe you can&amp;#039;t. I know how that is, too. All divorce lawyers offer an initial consultation for free. Take advantage of it. You don&amp;#039;t even know what you qualify for without that information. You may be able to get Spousal Support or Alimony Pendente - meaning you get money before the divorce is final. In your case, if you&amp;#039;ve been out of the workforce for awhile, it&amp;#039;s highly likely you qualify. Get informed. If you don&amp;#039;t know who to call, look up the state bar association and ask for a referral. 2). Call in your favors. I mean this. Call your friends, your family, neighbors - anyone you know you can count on. Don&amp;#039;t feel like you&amp;#039;re being a burden or a pest. You need your support system, and there&amp;#039;s nothing wrong in asking for help when you need it. 3). Don&amp;#039;t under-estimate your skills. Just because you&amp;#039;ve been out of the workforce doesn&amp;#039;t mean you&amp;#039;re not a good hire. I used to work as a recruiter, and believe me, I&amp;#039;d rather have punctuality, professionalism, pleasant demeanor, intelligence and a solid work ethic over pages of skills any day. An employer can teach skills. They can&amp;#039;t teach the other stuff. There&amp;#039;s a lot of temp work out there due to the economy, and a lot of it is now &amp;quot;temp to hire&amp;quot;, meaning you can start as a temp and end up with a full-time job. Many of the larger staffing services offer computer training and tutorials as well. Check into them. 4). Breathe. You will get through this. It&amp;#039;s overwhelming right now, but you will get through it, and it just might surprise you that you like how you end up, most days. Here&amp;#039;s a list of some of the sites I found helpful in the early days: www.divorcesource.com www.divorcenet.com www.firstwivesworld.com Hang in there, Sherry. I&amp;#039;d hold your hand if I could. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/relationships/dating-marriage/a47363/what-do-you-do/>