Dear Dr. Meeker,

First, I wish to thank you for Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters. It has been a very enlightening and educational read for me as a dad of a five-year-old daughter.

I write to you because, sadly, my wife has decided to end our twelve-year marriage. Needless to say, it is my daughter for whom I am very, very concerned.

Although my wife has also read your book and all the hard figures and statistics in it, she thinks saving a marriage “for the children” is an old, passé way of thinking. She thinks the impact on children—specifically my daughter—depends on how the divorcing couple manages the situation.

Frankly, I am heartbroken and desperate. I went through the divorce of my parents, and those were indeed horrible times for me—whose ghosts accompany me to this very date, and I am almost 40 years old! If I could only put my experience inside my wife’s head for her to see! But she just does not buy it. Admittedly, my particular case was aggravated by my father’s alcoholism and his virtual disappearance from my life after the divorce.

I have done everything in my hands to save my marriage, to no avail….