Background: I've (F/35) been friends with Michelle (F/48) for 13 years. We do a hobby together and see each other about 2-3 times a month for a few hours. Both of us are very busy with life. She and her husband are both lawyers. They have 2 kids (15/12) and she very involved with their sporting events so it's hard for her to get away. She's also a very religious person, attending mass every day. Last year she filed for divorce against her husband Joe (M/50). She had talked to her priest before she filed, knowing she'd no longer be able to get communion if they did divorce. It practically broke her to not be able to attend services but Joe was cheating on her with multiple women, drinking heavily, hitting her (and the kids) etc. Once he was served, all of a sudden he became a different person - stopped drinking, stopped cheating, got a job etc. I don't like Joe, but I've never told Michelle that, only that I would support her no matter her decision. With the pressure from her church, and Joe's seemingly instant change, she canceled the divorce and it's all butterflies and roses.
Current Issue: All of a sudden, everyone in the hobby group got an e-mail from Michelle saying we are to delete her from our lives. She wanted us to all sign a legal document agreeing that we will have no contact with her from this point forward and any items we created together as part of the hobby were to be returned to her. (This is a difficult ask, it's like if we knitted a blanket from yarn she, and others, brought to the group, we were to tear the blanket apart to return only her yarn.) It was also quite harshly worded and not in her normal tone.
Another member of the hobby group (Penelope F/50s), reached out to her under the premise of not having read her earlier e-mail and got a response back. She's quit her job. She's withdrawing from all her hobby groups. She's going to focus on being a wife and mother, because she has been a bad wife and her husband needs her. Friends apparently hamper this focus and therefore she can't be friends with Penelope (or anyone). Penelope forwarded this on to the group. We have racked our brains and can think of no incident which may have caused the sudden shift.
I feel sick with worry about Michelle. All my alarm bells are going off. Penelope is trying to "run into" Michelle at a coffee shop she frequents to talk to her in person. I'm looking for advice on how I can help Michelle. I can't bring myself to sign a legal document saying I won't be friends with someone. Help!
TL;DR: My friend of 13 years wants me to sign a legal document saying we won't be friends/have contact.
Submitted November 06, 2019 at 12:32PM by Delphicdragon https://ift.tt/2NIW2uA
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