Started my fade in mid 1990s by going to college across town. Moved to different Congregation™ and Circuit™ (and, as it turned out, District™), where nobody knew us and nobody would be looking for us (Mr. Scully & our kids).
Nobody from our old Congregation™ bothered to keep in touch. We all made new friends. I got a great job after graduating. Mr. Scully had started his own business and was doing very well. The kids loved their school, loved that they could participate in school activities, and celebrations.
It was a fairly painless process overall, until we moved house to the part of town where we lived before... that's a story that is featured in the archives.
Still very much worth the minor headaches at the time. I'm neither DFd nor DAd. Both sides of the family (the JW parts) have come to realize the damage shunning does within a family. My RC in-laws gave the JW brother in law (former RC) a 'come to Jesus' talking-to, and told him that when he became a JW none of them shunned him and his family, so if he was going to shun us, they would do the same to him. "Family is family" is their motto. He actually apologized to us at the last family reunion.