The doctor called me by my married name after the divorce was final

Dear Delyara, My divorce became final three weeks ago. Today, at a medical appointment, the nurse called, “Mrs. Parker?” I stood automatically. That had been my name for seventeen years. Then I remembered I had legally changed it back. I corrected her. She apologized and updated the record. The whole exchange took perhaps twenty seconds. I spent the rest of the appointment wanting to cry. I had fought to reclaim my old surname. It mattered to me. My husband and I had not ended well, and returning to my own name felt like removing one final piece of the marriage from my body. Yet hearing the old name unexpectedly made me grieve. Mrs. Parker had pregnancies, school runs, Christmases, mortgage statements, terrible holidays, good dinners, ordinary Tuesday nights. She was not fake simply because the marriage ended. At home, I found an old prescription bottle with that name and nearly put it in the bin. Instead, I left it in the bathroom drawer. I do not want the name anymore. I also do not want to behave as though the woman who answered to it for seventeen years deserves to disappear because I finally signed papers saying her marriage had.