Disclaimer: All facts gleaned from the filings stated hereafter are only as truthful as the petitioner. The tone of this article expresses a style of writing historically employed by America’s greatest writers and, as such, is for opinion purposes only. No intentional harm is due. Do not read if the topic of divorce (even your own) causes you emotional distress. Continue at your own risk.
The end of a marriage, like the slow decay of brick and stone, becomes visible long before the walls finally fall. On September 22, 2025, Derrick Fitzpatrick, sixty-six, filed a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage in the Circuit Court of Cook County. He did so without counsel, proceeding pro se, and set forth his account of a union that had stretched from August 26, 2006, until now.
Derrick and Reshorna Fitzpatrick, sixty-one, remain under the same roof, though the closeness of their address no longer means closeness of heart. Their children are grown, self-sufficient, no longer in need of parental support. What remains is property, debts, and the question of whether anything more is owed between them.
Derrick asserts that irreconcilable differences have broken the marriage beyond repair. His petition draws careful lines around what is his alone: the South Forrestville Avenue property, purchased with his non-marital funds before the wedding, a claim he asks the court to affirm. He requests that neither spouse be awarded maintenance, now or in the future, and that any marital assets be equitably divided according to law.
The petition carries the cadence of finality—an insistence that the past be neatly partitioned, that obligations be measured and closed. In filing pro se, Derrick speaks directly to the court, asking it to mark an ending where he believes the marriage has already ceased to exist.
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