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.
There are endings that feel like silence thickening between two people. On April 2, 2025, Michelle Winters reached for that quiet conclusion, filing a petition for dissolution of marriage against Joseph J. Winters in Cook County, Illinois. The filing marks the formal end of a union begun on a winter’s day in Chicago, February 3, 2018. What began with hope now rests in the hands of the Circuit Court.
Michelle, through her counsel Amy S. Ezeldin of the Ezeldin Law Firm, P.C., asserts that irreconcilable differences have fractured their bond beyond repair. The two have already spent more than six months apart, living separate lives under different roofs—Michelle in Phoenix, Arizona, and Joseph in Park Forest, Illinois.
There were no children born of the marriage, no adopted ties to bind. Yet, as in all dissolutions, there is still the matter of division. A house on Illinois Street stands among the acquired marital property. Michelle asks the court to return her name—Michelle Yvette Cooks—and to leave each party to their own financial fates, with Joseph responsible for his debts and legal fees. She seeks her share of what was jointly built, and nothing more than what is just.
Some unions don’t end in a storm. They end in a stillness, the kind that follows years of trying, and finally, letting go.
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