So I thought that it may be time to tell y'all a little bit of my story. A while back I told you that I was a DV survivor. You will notice that I have had a little bit of everything in my life. I have had verbal and emotional, physical, and sexual coercion. My husband is not like this and I am grateful for that. He can be a bit of a handful at times, but he doesn't beat the shit out of me and he likes my food. :)
I can remember being a little girl and my mom and dad
fighting. No hitting other than once that I know of, but there was more than
enough yelling and screaming. The worst was going to my grandma’s house [dads].
They didn’t know how to do anything other than fight. I vividly remember
standing on the porch with all my cousins, it was cold and I was very young,
and a recliner comes through the window. My uncle threw it because of something
that happened inside. That wasn’t the first time it had happened and it also
wasn’t the last, it was just the only time I can remember real well. The only
time I ever saw my dad hit my mom was when we were young and we came home and
he was mad at her for something. He grabbed her out of the truck and hit her in
the face. He then took her and threw her against the light post in the middle
of the yard and then he left. We sat on the swing out front for a long time
that day.
Fast forward into my
teen years; my dad has gone to jail and then prison for murder. I have no clue
if he did it or not so please don’t ask. We had to go and live with my mom’s
parents because my dad was our supporter. With him gone we had no way to pay
for anything anymore so we had to leave our home. My grandpa was the meanest
man I had ever met. I was only 14 maybe 15 and skinnnny!! He would sit in the
living room at night and watch TV. Sometimes I would go into the kitchen to get
a drink or a snack and he would tell me that I shouldn’t be eating because I
was already fat. Guess 125 pounds is HUGE!!!! I stayed there about 3 months
before I had a complete nervous breakdown. I sat on the floor in the laundry
room crying, screaming, scratching, and pulling out my hair. My mom sent me to
live with my dad’s parents. He (dad’s father) wasn’t any better. He would
constantly accuse me of stealing from him, even though I wasn’t. My aunt Carol
had to come and “rescue” me one time because of it. Finally my mom got back on her feet and we
moved into our own place. It didn’t help any though because instead of being
loved I had a mom that didn’t care. I could do anything that I wanted and she
never did anything unless it was skipping school, and that was only because she
was going to have to pay a fine. She filed me as a runaway 4 times by the time
I was 15.
Then I met Albert. I
thought he was the moon for some reason. It might have been because I was only
16, but I dated him for a long time. I was always running off girls that were
‘chasing’ him. Come to find out he was sleeping with all of them. Then at 17 I
was pregnant. I had already ran away with him and the police refused to pick me
up anymore. My mom didn’t want anything to do with me at that point because she
said that I had ‘abandoned’ her. UM HELLO I AM A 17 YEAR OLD CHILD. Nope didn’t
matter, she was “Done with me”. I had my daughter 3 months before my 18th
birthday. Guess what, my mom showed up at the hospital. She said that we could
move back in with her and be in the “big” room. I was there for 2-3 months. I
got a job and then got a place to live, like a family, with Albert and my
daughter. It was a trailer park. I had to pay $150 a week but it was ok because
I had my family. I would take my daughter to her grandma’s (his mom) and pay
her to watch her, go to work, come home and pick her up, clean house and cook
dinner, serve him in bed; if he didn’t like it, it would be thrown in my
direction and I would have to make something that he liked. Have you noticed
yet that he is not working or watching our daughter? Wanna know what he is
doing? He is “seeing” the girl down the street. She is 14 and pregnant with his
child.
After he leaves my
mom moves in with me to help me with everything. He comes up one night and
knocks on my door. When I open it he tells me that he wants his dogs. (We had 2
pits that I supported) I informed him that he wasn’t getting them and that he
needed to leave. That is when he went crazy! He started to scream and yell but
my dog didn’t like that too much and started towards him growling. Yep he
backed that ass right back out of my house. Or I thought that was what it was
but then I remember that I had put the puppy out back to go potty and he was
yelping to come back in. I ran around to the back door and went out, we both
reached the pup at about the same time. He grabbed the front of his halter and
I grabbed the back. Albert didn’t like that and I knew almost immediately that
I had made a mistake. He started to scream at me like I had never heard him do
before. He had an edge to his voice that scared me. That is when he hit me for
the first time. Not once, not twice, but 4-5 times, in the face. He then
slammed my face into the propane tank a couple of times and then threw me over
the fence where my knee attached itself to it. As I am laying on the ground not
able to move he jumps the fence with my puppy and walks away. That was the
worst feeling in the world. I realized, that as I pulled myself up and walked
around to the front of the house, the neighbor had heard and possibly seen
everything and she was on the phone. I asked her to please not call the cops,
it was done, he was gone. I didn’t think he would be back. I went into the
house, cleaned myself up, calmed my mom and daughter down, and as I was sitting
down someone knocked at the door. My mom, not wanting me to get hit again,
answered the door. It was the police wanting to see me. After I told him what
happened he went to speak with Albert. Not to long after he came back and told
me that his sister said I had hit him also and first. No matter how much I said
I didn’t he would not believe me. I was handcuffed and then placed in the back
seat of the patrol car, with Albert sitting right next to me. As the cop was
speaking with my mother, Albert was telling me that he was going to “whoop my
Ass” when we get out for calling the cops. I was freaking terrified!! I spent 2
days in jail when my grandma bailed me out. I think it was about 3-6 months
later I was standing in the courthouse waiting to speak with someone about the
charges on Albert when he came and stood right next to me. Again I was terrified!!
What the hell did he want now? I left and have not bothered him since! Guess
what? He told me that I needed to drop the charges on him because he didn’t do
anything wrong and that in return he would drop them on me. Yep for one there
had been charges brought upon me; Assault on a family member; and for 2 he
wanted me to drop the ones on him; Assault on a family member w/bodily injury.
Um, hello again, I am terrified of this guy! He just beat the hell out of me
and now he is standing next to me telling me that I needed to drop the charges,
so guess what I did? Yep, I dropped them. I didn’t want my ass beat again and I
knew that if I didn’t do what he told me to he would probably do it again.
He stalked me for
about 6 months after that. I can say that I have not heard from him since and I
am ok with that.
The after effects of the abuse is hard. I have severe anxiety and panic attacks around large groups. I get extremely defensive when people yell or scream at me. For a long time I was an addict of sorts. I was a child that most of my family didn't like. I don't know why and I probably never will. I wasn't told by my mom until about 2 years ago that she loved me. I have told my kids that several times a day from day one. I was judged because I got pregnant at 17 but I had no one else that wanted me, I was a problem child...Never judge a person because of their shell. You don't know what they have suffered through in their life.