He didn't hit her, but he destroyed everything she had. I don't know if she even realized it was abuse, because it wasn't physical. It was mental. People don't think of that as being abused.

I let go of false hope. I let go of the hope that they would transform in favour of working on my own transformation. I let go of the hope that they would HEAR me. I let go of the hope that they would SEE me. Instead of my hope being in THEM, I listened to me. I heard me, I saw me, I validated my own pain and I began to emerge from the broken life I had been living.

I got a phone call -- he said, 'Mom, call 911. My son had to see that.

She didn't tell me nearly as much. I think she didn't want to frighten me.

Nobody would have thought he would have taken it that far. Now they're both gone.

I knew something was wrong.