Does Divorce Have A Lighter Side? This Wilton Woman Is Banking On It

WILTON, CT — A heart-wrenching 50 percent of marriages in the U.S. end in divorce, according to the law firm Wilkinson & Finkbeiner, and they would know. Now a Wilton woman is determined that the attorneys not be the only ones profiting from that grim statistic.

Maxime Francis started her greeting card business, I Have No Filter, to fill a void most people never noticed.

"There are cards for just about everything," she said. "You break your arm, you get a card. You stub your toe, you get a card. But there really weren't a lot of cards for a divorce-iversary."

Francis found that out after she went searching for one to send her ex-husband, a year after their 15-year marriage ended in divorce. She says she discovered a few "cheesy, 'congratulations on your divorce'" sentiments, but nothing that really resonated with her.

"So I kind of created my own," she said. "Clearly I have issues, and it just kind of cascaded into other things that are within the sphere of divorce, that didn't necessarily pertain to me at the time."

Francis invented her own line of snarky greeting cards, I Have No Filter, that will commemorate your divorce, amicable or not. Or, for five bucks a pop, the postman can even deliver your snappy and snappish ruminations on friends drifted apart, Father's Day, and even the neighbor's dog poop. There are also divorce deep-dives intended for your ex's sibling ("Now that I'm divorced from your brother, I always wanted to let you know…" / "I never did like you").

"But the initial seed was, I was divorced. It had been a year, I wanted to send him a card," Francis said. "And honestly, I wanted to send the card more for me."

So is I Have No Filter a business? Or is it therapy?

"I think it can be a little bit of both, right? If you buy the card, it might be therapy for you. But it's a business for me."

That dichotomy is never more clear than at the company's online presence, which is part small business website, part gut-spilling diary. Francis' mission to "debunk fake politeness, disrupt silent thinking (or judgment) and celebrate the snarky and sarcastic, when life situations get tough (so like always)" is perfectly encapsulated in the company logo, a magenta snarl. Blogs relive the moment that Francis "found an earring, in his car" and recount the trauma she experienced learning of her own parents' divorce at age 10.

But for potential customers, folks surfing the web or jumping off a Facebook link in search of some light-hearted alt-Hallmark, might this not all be… a tad too much information?

Maybe. Francis isn't worried.

"So if it's a little too raw, then it's probably not the site for you," she reasoned.

Still, business is business, and the entrepreneur told Patch she is working on an expanded line with a breezier touch. Francis said she and her designer in Ukraine will be producing 40 new cards, some of which are a "little less 'no filter,' maybe a little bit more cheeky, maybe just a little bit more funny."

"I like the juxtaposition of something that is seemingly so sad and devastating, with being salty or sarcastic or funny. I think this idea, that divorce is like the worst thing that can possibly happen to you, akin to death — we gotta get over that."

The mother of two boys, 11 and 13, and a child of divorce herself, she understands better than most how that may be a tough sell.

"I'm not making light of it. But it's also an opportunity to turn it around," she said. "It doesn't always have to be so awful and dire."