Dumped, Actually(73)

I’ve been enjoying ‘Dumped Actually’ so much. It’s made me laugh and laugh. I wasn’t also expecting it to make me cry, though!

I wish I could give you the answers you’re looking for, but my divorce from my husband didn’t happen because one of us was needy. It happened because one of us didn’t need the other one enough.

And now I feel like crying again, so I think I’ll move on!

The only thing that really helped me when I got divorced was that I had lots of friends and family to lean on for support. If you can do that as well, you should. My mum was a rock for me. Without her I would probably have fallen apart completely.

So my advice to you would be, if you have loved ones in your life that you can go and be with – do it! Friends, family, it doesn’t matter. As long as you have some moral support from the people you are closest to, you can get through this, Ollie, I promise you.

The very best of luck, and I look forward to reading about what you get up to next!

Very best of wishes and love,

Carla



From: Skeez ([email protected])

Yo Olsberth! How r u doin??

I was like you once, dude – all miz and no smiles, until I changed my life by seeing how RADICAL the world is!

I got off my ass & lived more, loved more & risked more. It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever done.

I felt like the walking dead when Shelly upped and left me for that dweebus Nolan, but I just woke up one day & knew I had to get high to feel better!

You ever done a parachute jump? You should, dude! It opens your mind, man. It opens everything inside you. Shows you how your world could be.

I had an ephipanany on my way down that first time. Like, saw the future without Shelly, and saw that it might not be that bad, if I just lived life on the edge.

And I never looked back since, cuz. I been jumping and riding and singing and diving ever since, and never, ever felt better in my whole life!

Serious to the max – give it a go. Throw yourself into your new life, by throwing yourself out of the plane!

Bestest and fastest,

Skeez



From: Laurel Pearce ([email protected])

Ollie,

What do we do with you, eh?

In the past few months, I think I’ve felt more sympathy for a man I’ve never met than anyone who I actually know!

I’ve also never been as frustrated with someone, either.

I want to give you a hug, and a big smack at the same time.

In each chapter of ‘Dumped Actually’, I’ve willed you on to a better understanding of who you are, and have inwardly cheered when it looks like you’ve made a breakthrough.

But then, things seem to either backslide, or just come to a grinding halt, and I want to pull my hair out on your behalf!

I never intended to get in touch like this, because I know you’ve had so many people email you. One more voice probably wouldn’t do any good! But eventually, I just had to say something to you. I’m slightly afraid that you’ll just keep trying all of these weird, outlandish and possibly soul-destroying antics, until I end up reading your obituary.

So – to hopefully help put a stop to all of that, I’m going to tell you the real secret to getting over a lost love. It’s the one you don’t want to hear, and the one that most people will steer clear of saying, but in my experience it’s always been the only one that’s ever worked.

And it’s quite simply this: find someone else to love.

It’s the easiest and hardest thing to do, isn’t it? But that doesn’t make it any less true.

And the sad thing is it might take years. Everyone wants a quick fix to the problems in their life, but there’s just no such thing when you’re mending a broken heart. It takes time, patience and the love of another person to truly get you back to where you want to be.

The pay-off is that the love you find after the love you’ve lost is usually the best you’ll ever have – because you can’t really know the joy of love until you’ve properly felt its pain first. Not in my experience, anyway. And I doubt you’ll find many who will disagree.

So, that’s my advice, I’m afraid. It’s probably not what you want to hear, but there it is.

No matter how long it takes, the only way to get over a broken heart is with patience, and the knowledge that there is someone else out there for you who’s even better than the one who’s just gone. When you find her, you’ll feel a whole lot better.

Love and best wishes, Laurel xx





CHAPTER TEN

VOWS

I have become obsessed with geraniums.

And not in a healthy way.

I have never before shared my parents’ joint love of gardening, so have until this point in my life never given plants – potted or otherwise – any attention whatsoever.

But now I have become obsessed with geraniums.

Or at least what geraniums might represent.

My subconscious certainly isn’t letting on. And I have no intention of ever going anywhere near a sensory deprivation tank again to make it talk.

I’ve always had a . . . let’s call it a healthy internal dialogue with myself, but I wasn’t aware just how loud that dialogue is until the experience I had a fortnight ago at Floaters.

My subconscious is clearly trying to tell me something. About geraniums. And about my parents.