I met a man named Sam. He was a jubilant man that had moved to Mexico City just before the pandemic. We met over the internet, in a Facebook group dedicated to expats in Mexico. He was interested in collaborating on a weekly open mic. Somethiing fun and low pressure just to get the ball rolling with English comedy here.

Sam left Williamsburg nine months ago after his marriage fell apart and and a bad split with his brother. He lost both the love of his life and his closest family member within the span of a few days leaving him devastated and without direction. In Williamsburg, Sam operated an AirBnb living in one of the rooms and renting the others. Nobodies would come in and out of his home, even as the people that meant the most had left permanently. It was this sensation that compelled him to leave. After losing the people you are closest to, nothing hurts as much as being surrounded by strangers that mean nothing to you.

Sam’s previous marriage is interesting. He married a trust fund kid, A girl 12 years younger than him. He knew the very first date that he wanted to marry her, he said to me. Sam paid for her house and food and everything in between. He took care of her. She, on the other hand, was a child. She was out getting drunk every night with her 21 year old friends. Sam would not know where his wife was on any given night.

But Sam persisted. Sam persisted because delusion is a powerful force. No one wants to believe that their marriage is falling apart. What’s more is that no one wants to believe that they, as a man in their 30s, chose a lousy partner. A partner that was not even close to being an adult. Sam told me that as he would give her money he would jokingly say, “You’d better not divorce me before you turn 27.” You see, on her 27th birthday, Sam’s beloved would receive a million dollars from her trust fund. One morning, about a year ago, well before her 27th birthday, their was a knock on Sam’s door. He opened the door to find his brother-in-law handing him the divorce papers.

Today, I met Sam at a bar outside of house near Parque Mexico. Thousands of miles from his past, he is a jubilant man. Sam is a a man with a new life. This coming Saturday, Sam is getting married to a beautiful woman he met here in Mexico. It will be his second marriage, less than a year after the dissolution of his first.