L's Story

"Thank God I had a caring aunt and cousins who served as a model family for me. I hated being at home and would spend as much time as possible at my aunt's house. I strongly feel that it was because of them that I was able to keep going…knowing that when I "grew up" I would have a chance to have a nice family of my own, like that of my cousins.


There were many nights that I would pray that both of my parents would be killed in a car crash or something just so I could get away from them. Or, that some miracle might occur that would end my father's drinking -- and the physical abuse my mother dished out. He was always a "man" never hitting her back. I admired him for that. I remember many times telling him to hit her back. It was just so sad watching this drunken father being hit, scratched, screamed at, etc. In one of the fights, my mother threw a beer bottle at him, the bottle hit the wall and came back and split his pupil in half. He remained blind in that eye until the day he died. All I knew was that somehow, I just needed to get out.


My nightmare came to an end when I met a very special young man. He knew all that went on in my house because he worked near by. I always felt that I didn't have to hide from him because he already knew. He's seen my dad drunk at the wheel of a car, passed out with the horn blowing and blowing. Yet this young man, now my husband, could see all this and treat me like a real person, even make me laugh. Even though we were young, it seemed like a much better life than I had previously; my husband was my "knight in shining armor.


"Today, I am still trying to deal with certain things that happened, like being called all kinds of derogatory names because I had met my future husband. I also feel strongly that it is important to somehow deal with the violent situations so many people are in. There must be some way to get people to understand what is happening to their children and themselves. Somehow this country and the people in it need to wake up and face what is going on.