So, fiance and I have to go to an engagement party this Saturday--the nuance to the party is that his ex-wife is going to be there as well. I have never met her, and I have never been in a situation like this before. My fiance is worried that she will feel bad that he has moved on with his life, and that she hasn't. (He does not know about her dating life, if she is actually seeing anyone or anything like that). For this reason, my plan is to go about meeting her as if she were any other person that I'm meeting for the first time, and kind of ignoring the fact that I am marrying her ex husband. At the same time, though, I don't want to cling on to him in front of her, but I also don't want to not hang around him, because that would look awkward.
Any suggestions on how to handle this gracefully? I don't want it to look awkward, but I don't want to look anti-social either.
(Preface to the whole situation: I am the product of my Dad's second marriage, and pretty much all my life, my Mom has made no bones about how much she hated his ex-wife. She would bad mouth that woman to no end, and she always used to warn me 'never marry a divorced man,' to which, I would respond, 'It's my life. Whatever happens, happens.' So most of my experience with ex-spouses meeting eachother has been colored by my upbringing.)
