Married Protestant Needing To Understand Invalid Marriage

[X_Protestant]

I am a life-long Protestant recently realizing a calling to join the Catholic church and have started attending RCIA with the goal of joining at Easter Vigil 2015. My husband & I have been married 38 years, both baptized Christians and married in a Protestant church. He was previously married and divorced after about 1 year of marriage when the 1st wife left him declaring she never loved him & it was a mistake.  I have been told by my priest that my marriage is invalid unless the 1st marriage is annulled and I cannot be confirmed until that is done. It grieves me to think that if my husband will not cooperate in seeking an annulment of his first marriage which he sees no need to pursue, I will never be able to experience the fullness of life as a Catholic.  Is there no other option?

[CatherineM]

Is his first wife still alive? If she isn't, no problem. I'm of course not suggesting you have her killed. You could ask her to help you get it annulled, or you could ask your husband to go through the paperwork as your birthday present.

My mom tried for 30 years to get my Dad to get his first marriage annulled. It can bring up all sorts of hard feelings about one of the worst moments in their lives. You could ask him to come with you to talk about it with your priest.