Photo by Miguel Bruna on Unsplash
How do I tell the story of my life? As I look back and think of what went on, I remember not knowing what each day would bring. From the second day of our marriage, this man let his true colors show. On the second day of living in our home, I went to the mailbox to get our mail. When he got home, he hit the roof and told me that was his mailbox. Mine was at my old address! I figured he just needed to get use to the idea of being married.
Everything seemed to get better; I had our baby girl. He was so happy. A year went by and I got pregnant again. When he found out it was a boy, he hit me in the stomach and ran over me with a hay buggy. He tried in every way to kill me or my baby.
No one knew how he was. He hid it well. He made sure every bruise and bite mark were in a place that could be covered.
This kind of behavior went on and on, even after I left and filed for a divorce. On the day the divorce was final, I had to take the children to visitation with him. It didn’t go well. He decided to run over me, with my children in the truck. I wanted to just give up. What was this man going to have to do to be put away?
But my children needed me. I remembered to always fight back, no matter how much worse it made things for me. As I lay there on that concrete thinking, “Is this it? Is he going to kill me?” I heard my child’s voice, asking her daddy to stop! The whole time he was backing up to hit me again. I know If she hadn’t said anything, he would have continued.
Finally, a young girl helped me get inside a store and he drove off. He took my children. As I sat on the floor of that store, I prayed God would send me help.
That’s when I meet Tanya Foster. What a blessing she and the Leon County Domestic Violence Advocates have been.
She helped me take a stand! I sat at that table and told Tanya my story and the many incidents that had had happened since the beginning of my marriage.
I have since married a great man who provided for me and all my children with no hesitation. My ex-husband continues to mentally abuse me and my grown children. Seems like the old saying Once an abuser, always an abuser fits him to a tee.
This is my story: I survived, I am a survivor!