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 is no great drama to the filing, only the quiet thud of a long life turning. On July 7, 2025, Mary Ellen McSherry, 67, submitted a petition in the Cook County Circuit Court seeking dissolution of her marriage to Francis McSherry, 71. They married on July 7, 2001—twenty-four years to the day—and yet the symmetry of the date offers no comfort. This is a story of disintegration not marked by betrayal or scandal, but by the slow erosion of connection, irreconcilable differences accumulating over decades into a silence that could no longer be denied.
Mary Ellen lives in Orland Park, Illinois; Francis resides in nearby Tinley Park. She still works. He is retired. The lives they now lead no longer resemble the one they once promised to share. There are no children in this marriage—none born, none adopted. But there is property to be divided, and questions of maintenance still to be determined. The filing asks for just distribution: that Mary Ellen retain her non-marital assets, that the rest be shared equitably. It also seeks that each pay for their own legal costs.
Mary Ellen is represented by Gwendolyn J. Sterk of Gwendolyn J. Sterk and the Family Law Group, PC, based in Orland Park. The petition does not speak in outrage or grief, but in formalities and provisions. The story is not in what is said—but in what is no longer possible to mend.
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