It was very hard to escape from my now former domestic violence life and took much courage to leave him.
We lived in a large home with solid oak stairs.
One day he pushed me down the stairs again. I must have blacked out for about an hour because the news had just ended when I came to on the first floor of our home. The doors were locked from the inside (he had installed double key deadbolt locks before we moved in) and the keys to the doors and he had hidden all the phones including my cell phone again. He was asleep on the couch. And I had the worst headache of my life.
The next day he was to go out of town on a business trip. As soon as he drove away, I called a friend to take me to the ER. At the ER, the doctor did a brain scan and discovered that much of my brain appeared bruised. He told me he did not believe I had fallen down the stairs again. No one is that clumsy he said. Then he proceeded to tell me that, if I did not get away from my current living situation, he would get the police involved himself. I knew that it would be best if I found my own way out of the situation.
My friend took me to a lawyer she knew on the way home. He happened to not be busy at the time. My friend told him what the situation was and he started asking me questions and taking notes. Then he asked his secretary to type a divorce petition. I was scared to death, literally. My husband had told me over and over that he would kill me if I ever left him. I knew he meant it. But the ER doctor who had seen me too many times with suspicious injuries had told me that he would take care of this problem if I did not, so I proceeded to divorce my abusive husband.
The divorce was nasty and bitter.
He and his lawyer dragged the case out to run up my legal bills. After our divorce was finally granted, I declared bankruptcy because I could not afford to pay my lawyer. My ex-husband actually cut a six-inch incision in my neck less than 1 mm from my carotid artery and got off with a deferred sentence due to the influence of his wealthy parents. And they gave me a permanent domestic violence restraining order against the man who had beaten me up too many times.
A restraining order is just a piece of paper and the restraining order I had against him did very little good.
He stalked me every day.
My ex would park his car at the end of my street and wait for me to go out and I got very tired of this. The police became disinterested in helping me after they had come many times and just missed seeing him drive away (He had a police radio in his car that he listened to.
I had a friend who lived very far away but still in the US. I called him and he sent me a plane ticket. The week before I left, I quietly packed all of my belongings into boxes. Then Friday morning finally came. Another friend picked me up and drove me to the airport and I left my home with one suitcase. My friend would go back and get my black German Shepherd dog before dinner that day and take him to her neighbor who was adopting him. She would also go get and load all of my boxed belongings and take them to her storage shed for safekeeping before the end of the month when I would not be there to pay my rent.
He followed us to the airport so I alerted airport security to the fact that my ex-husband was stalking me in spite of a restraining order. They stopped him and forced him to leave the airport.
And I flew away from my domestic violence life on a Southwestern Airlines airplane.
I was unafraid of going to a new place where I only knew one person. I knew I would make new friends. And I felt safe for the first time in many many many years.
I was an eagle on this day.
I was soaring above the storms in my life. And starting a new, safe, and healthy life. I had escaped my domestic violence life!
Let the encouraging words in these bobbiejrae posts help you
soar like an eagle above life’s storms.
Please let go of your monster!
You can overcome depression and calm anxiety!
Learn from this tragedy instead of allowing it to be repeated.
The most powerful forces in the universe are love and positive thinking!