It recently came to my attention a woman by the name of Nina( the name has been changed to protect the guilty and to preserve some sort of decency-mine-not hers-) is billing herself as a “Divorce Coach”…..and is teaching “Divorce Seminars” down the New Jersey way-to help other women avoid the pitfalls of divorce since she “suffered”so much. Claiming she, now-a single parent, was the victim of a horrible divorce-that she was “married to a sociopath”- and to this day feels it is her duty to warn other women;To teach other women the ways and means of surviving a “brutal” divorce. TO ALL YOU WOMEN WHO HAVE PAID THIS WOMAN MONEY-Find your own inner voice and DEMAND IT BACK. You have been duped. She is a fraud.

Here is the real Nina- you might even recognize her. Had my mother not been such a forgiving soul-E…..ummmmm..Nina would be sporting a jumpsuit in a bright shade of orange serving out deserved time on Federal charges…..but my mom, being the real victim-decided not to pursue any legal action. My mother somehow managed to maintain a level of grace and dignity through her own run in with this “divorce coach” . Let’s review:

Nina is the exact kind of woman she warns those she coaches to avoid..and what to “look for first” when a divorce is hovering. Perhaps this is why she knows so much about the ins and outs on how to survive a divorce.-how to “gain financial success”..because she was once the motivating gas on a hell of a fire…she stood back, lit the match, watched it burn, surveyed the damage and counted her money all the way to the bank.

Yes, I know divorce happens. What two people decide to do with their tail-spining end of a marriage is up to them- whatever reasons my parents 33 year marriage came to an end is between them both- as it should have been. BUT my father was having an affair with Nina- who was younger than three of his children and 34 years younger than him……she clearly was in for the money -had a history of going after wealthy men- taking what she could and then moving on ( what does her mother think of her daughter? parading her poontang all over the greater Triboro Area at such a young age????)….she gave no concern to anything or anyone other than keeping her eye on the financial prize. To those of you seeking her advice think about these things before you dump any more money into her slimy, fat palm.

She convinced my father( yes, he too is to blame-another blog on another day) to lock my mother out of the home she raised her family in while she was out for her ritual morning walk….her purse was left on the door step- in a matter of one hour all the locks had been changed. My mother never stepped foot in the house again. Never got her personal items. Nothing. She was not allowed back in her own home. No change of clothes, nothing. My mother raised her children in that house- grew a garden-lived a life.

Nina forged my mothers signature on several documents and bank notes so she and my father could sell off assets and hide them. In fact, we would often hear how “brilliant” this individual was and how “in charge” she was of finances.

She convinced my father to have all of us remove all personal items from the”marital home” in 30 days or else they would be destroyed. Three of us could not make it back to the home- a security guard was posted by the door and all items were thrown into a dumpster. I have nothing from my childhood to show my own child..because Nina( who was still having the affair with my father) did not want to “look at our things” when she came to visit…….before my parents were divorced- she had the house gutted and renovated. It looked like the inside of a Bloomingdales…..the home furnishing department.

And to show Nina’s side for dramatic flair- she thought it would be really fun to have my mothers divorce papers served at the home of her sister-while we were all there attending her daughters wedding.

At a Christmas party with friends and family in attendance- she got quite intoxicated, went up stairs and minutes later came downstairs with an extremely large dildo-and began playing with it. She thought she was being cute.

After my parents divorce -which was brutal- thanks to Nina’s input-and soon after Nina married my father-and then a year later divorced him- she would call my mother and act as if they were best friends-wanted to share secrets-promised to tell mom where all the money was hidden. Nina wanted to be friends since they were, after all, married to the same man gigglegiggle laughlaugh……..she even had the nerve to extend an olive branch to have us meet our half brother the child she had with my father. To date, I never have and do not have any notion of any kind to do so.

Recently while going through boxes in my mothers garage I came across court documents. It appears Nina’s divorce from my father was not all that abnormal. She was demanding all the money( from a year of marriage)-demanding all the assets and “joint property”-and basically , as they say down south, “show’in her behind” in a court of law. At one point the judge ordered her to undergo a psych evaluation. The evaluation indicated Nina was”suffering” from a severe narcissistic personality disorder. My father had the same diagnosis from his own court ordered evaluation. It is a wonder they did not kill each other along the way. There has to be a joke in there somewhere: How many narcissistic personalities does it take to________(fill in the blank).

This was years ago. Still, at times when I go to find something to share from my childhood with my child-and realize it is gone there is a hint of anger. When I look over the years of damage beyond repair-when I note the hurt one (two?) individual was willing to risk- not for love- but for financial gain-there is a twinge of “but why?”. That’s it. And now, as I watch my mother go through bitter life changes of her own-and hear snippets of her own unresolved hurt and anger- I fully understand divorce would have been inevitable and there is no way they could have remained married. However, I cringe at the thought this pig of a woman, Nina, is still profiting off the loss of our mother. There has to be a special place in the deep dark cracks of hell reserved for those who profit off other’s loss.

It is personal. It is still chalk full of question marks even as an adult. I have my own life so full of wonderful pathways and byways-but still, I feel a teeny tiny bit of loss for us all. More so, this is a battle cry against someone who is clearly (still) making money off something that caused my mother -and our entire extended family- a great deal of pain. But this is nothing new-look at Edwards and that whole unraveling of pain and profit.

Nina is the only one who gained from her actions. From what I can tell-she suffers little- she got what she wanted-received a sizeable settlement, and has never looked back. Odds are she is omitting this segment from the opening remarks as she struts up to the microphone, warms up her attentive audience filled with revenge and desparation-these women who want to know how to get even- these women who paid good money to hear from someone who has been through so much pain.

You wanna give her your money? Go right ahead.