10.Years.Gone
Not with a bang, but with a phone call.
Walking home yesterday, in a roundabout way, I got a phone call. Surprised to receive a call at all, I answered it without taking my AirPods out. (It annoys me when people speak on the phone in public without using the phone as a phone.) It was my employer asking about my divorce.
Turns out, the work permit I have is tied, not to the visa, but to the marriage – something the lawyers didn't think to mention, and something I surely never considered.
And that was it: my schedule was shut down, and my contract was terminated.
10 years and six weeks and it ends on the street, over the phone.