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.
On April 2, 2025, in Cook County, Illinois, Loretta J. Martin, through her attorney Steven E. Wasko of Steponate & Wasko, Ltd., petitioned the court to dissolve her marriage to Calvin A. Muhammad. What presents itself as a legal request is, more deeply, a microcosm of the social dynamics that age, property, and relational impasse inflict upon individuals within a rigid institutional framework.
Their marriage, solemnized on August 6, 2016, in Chicago, endured for nearly nine years—a span within which the veneer of unity appears to have been eroded by what the petition calls “irreconcilable differences.” The language is clinical, but the subtext is systemic: a society that simultaneously reveres the institution of marriage and offers only procedural pathways for its dissolution.
Martin, 85, and Muhammad, 73, share a home address on South Coles Avenue, yet proximity did little to bridge emotional and interpersonal distance. There are no children to consider, no young lives entangled in the fallout. But property—both marital and non-marital—stands as a point of reckoning. The petitioner asserts ownership of trust property and retirement benefits acquired before the marriage, assets she insists remain outside her husband’s legal reach.
The petition’s prayer to the court is, ultimately, not only for the dissolution of the union but also for a reaffirmation of individual boundaries—economic and legal. Martin seeks equitable division of shared property and sole ownership of her personal assets. These requests are couched in formal legal terms, but they underscore a deeper plea: to exit not just a relationship but the structural obligations it imposed.
A proceeding like this does not simply unravel a marriage; it challenges, quietly and precisely, the very assumptions society makes about enduring bonds, shared property, and the autonomy of the elderly in domestic contracts.
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