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‘I never demanded attention or care, and neither did he. And that’s why we broke.’

When Laura Pritchett and her husband divorced after two decades of marriage, their “little Colorado mountain town” could barely tell. It was quiet compared to the dramatic natural disasters that were afflicting the area — like flooding and wildfires. There were no raised voices, no feelings of fury.

So why did they split? In the lead-up to their divorce, Laura had a revelation about what good love — the kind that will “survive life” — is supposed to sound like.

Today’s stories

“No Sound, No Fury, No Marriage,” Laura Pritchett

“Silence Is Its Own Answer,” Jennifer Byrne

In Jennifer’s Tiny Love Story, she writes about the time when her husband was attending a medical conference in Hawaii, when a false North Korean missile alarm went off. Her husband faced the threat of imminent death for more than 30 minutes. “It was a false alarm for the missile,” Jennifer said in the episode, “but a real one for my marriage.”

Hosted by: Daniel Jones and Miya Lee
Produced by: Kelly Prime and Hans Buetow
Edited by: Wendy Dorr and Sara Sarasohn
Music by: Dan Powell
“Silence is its Own Answer,” written and read by: Jennifer Byrne
“No Sound, No Fury, No Marriage,” narration by: January LaVoy, produced by Ryan Wegner and Kelly Rogers at Audm
Executive Producer, NYT Audio: Lisa Tobin
Assistant Managing Editor, NYT: Sam Dolnick

Special thanks: Nora Keller, Mahima Chablani, Julia Simon, Laura Kim, Bonnie Wertheim, Anya Strzemien, Joanna Nikas and Choire Sicha.

Want more from Modern Love? Read past stories. Watch the TV series and sign up for the newsletter. We also have swag at the NYT Store and two books, “Modern Love: True Stories of Love, Loss, and Redemption” and “Tiny Love Stories: True Tales of Love in 100 Words or Less.”