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.

What remains of a marriage, once geography, time, and silence have buried its foundations, is often a ceremonial gesture in the court’s record—a final act that transforms private grief into public closure. On May 19, 2025, Adaobi Sandra Smart filed a Verified Petition for Dissolution of Marriage in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, signaling the end of a union that had long ceased to function.

Smart, now 34 and a resident of Des Plaines, Illinois, entered into matrimony with Godspower Joshua Smart in Lagos, Nigeria, on June 16, 2013. But by June 17, 2016—barely three years later—they had separated, their relationship fractured beyond repair. Despite years of silence, they never returned to the shared life they once imagined. No children resulted from the marriage, and the petitioner affirmed she is not currently pregnant by the respondent.

Represented by Ebere N. Ekechukwu of Ekechukwu & Associates, P.C., Smart petitioned the court to dissolve the marriage on grounds of irreconcilable differences, stating that reconciliation has proven impossible and would serve no constructive end. The petition outlines a practical disentanglement: no claim for maintenance, no real estate to divide, and a request that each party be awarded their respective non-marital property—including clothing, albums, jewelry, and photographs—as well as an equitable division of marital property such as vehicles, furniture, household furnishings, and fixtures.

This case speaks to a marriage defined more by distance than discord, and a parting framed not by bitterness, but by the quiet understanding that time had already rendered the bond irretrievable.

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