I'm Jo Peck again
New Zealand Listener|May 25-31 2024
Four weeks after her 60th birthday, Jo Peck's husband of 25 years told her he was seeing someone else. In a new book, she details how shock and disbelief made way for happiness and contentment.
SARAH CATHERALL
I'm Jo Peck again

On a cold Melbourne day one Queen's Birthday weekend, Jo Peck was about to go shopping with her husband of 25 years when he dropped a bombshell. It was four weeks after her 60th birthday, the couple had just finished a renovation project and she was looking forward to retiring and travelling with the man she had lived with for half her life, when he told her: "I'm seeing someone else."

Peck, a Melbourne-based copywriter, was even more devastated that at a time when she was feeling increasingly invisible as an ageing woman, her husband had fallen for a woman in her mid-30s.

The only way she could deal with her shock and heartbreak was to write about it, so she penned her thoughts and experiences in a journal, and the result was her inspiring, honest and at times hilarious memoir, Suddenly Single at Sixty.

Peck writes: "And suddenly, I am reduced to a cliché's wife. He's 62 and he's having an affair correction, he's 'in love' - with a girl young enough to be his child."

For 30 years, Peck had been one-half of a couple. They were Jo and "Rex" (a pseudonym). They went on adventurous cycling holidays and cared for guide dog puppies. They liked the same books and movies and travelling to the same places. They were part of a tight friendship group, their identities entwined by years of marriage and coupledom, and Peck writes that she felt like she was part of her husband's DNA.

But a fortnight after their 25th wedding anniversary, the marriage was over.

Although their relationship had never been smooth, she writes in her memoir, "I finally felt we were sailing into clear air".

Bu hikaye New Zealand Listener dergisinin May 25-31 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.

Bu hikaye New Zealand Listener dergisinin May 25-31 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.

NEW ZEALAND LISTENER DERGISINDEN DAHA FAZLA HIKAYETümünü görüntüle
Spilt milk
New Zealand Listener

Spilt milk

Excess dietary calcium goes into toilets, not bones.

time-read
3 dak  |
June - 1-7 2024
To the Max
New Zealand Listener

To the Max

The testosterone and torments of late adolescence are centre stage in this novel about finding your place in life.

time-read
2 dak  |
June - 1-7 2024
A chemical killer
New Zealand Listener

A chemical killer

A new book outlines the life of a woman who may well have been New Zealand’s most prolific poisoner. What was it that led police to exhume the body of her husband from its watery grave?

time-read
7 dak  |
June - 1-7 2024
Creating the WOW factor
New Zealand Listener

Creating the WOW factor

Meg Williams, in charge of the biggest festival involving a bunch of people wearing wacky outfits, admits she's not very flamboyant in her own dressing.

time-read
8 dak  |
June - 1-7 2024
Leaving it all on the park
New Zealand Listener

Leaving it all on the park

After cancer treatment, Graeme Downes takes stock of a musical life leading The Verlaines and lecturing future generations of songwriters.

time-read
9 dak  |
June - 1-7 2024
Wrong message
New Zealand Listener

Wrong message

A UK journalist who came here to talk about Rwanda’s authoritarian regime found herself the victim of a social media hate campaign.

time-read
8 dak  |
June - 1-7 2024
Busting a gut
New Zealand Listener

Busting a gut

IBD is escalating, seemingly thanks to the Western lifestyle, and New Zealand has one of the highest rates in the world.

time-read
10 dak  |
June - 1-7 2024
The point of Peters
New Zealand Listener

The point of Peters

There's been much to admire about the NZ First leader's politics over the years, but where has it got him?

time-read
5 dak  |
June - 1-7 2024
Don't call us ...
New Zealand Listener

Don't call us ...

Finland's ingenuity galvanised the rapid global uptake of cellphones, so it's paradoxical the country's latest claim to fame should be the elevation of no-speakies to a new commercial opportunity.

time-read
2 dak  |
June - 1-7 2024
He is here
New Zealand Listener

He is here

In the week my brother died, there was a storm in the universe.

time-read
2 dak  |
June - 1-7 2024