A woman survived 21 years of abuse from her second husband, including being pushed down stairs. After his imprisonment and release, she lost her house in the divorce settlement despite being the breadwinner. She rebuilt her life in a seaside flat and reconnected with her children, sharing her story to show others that recovery is possible.
Chapters
This client's story really epitomises how life can keep knocking you down, and it's how that you get up that makes a huge difference. Her second husband had come to live in her home along with her 2 children, and it would be fair to say that over the course of their 21-year marriage, He hadn't really contributed too much. She had remained the main, if only at much of the time, breadwinner, bringing up her 2 children alongside looking after him for much of the time as well. The children had grown up, left home, leaving the 2 of them at home much of the time. But what she hadn't realised was that over the course of those 21 years, He had been slowly eroding her self-confidence, her self-esteem, until one day when he pushed just that little bit harder, she stood up to him and he didn't like it. And this conversation just happened to happen at the top of a set of stairs, and he pushed her down them. The police were called. And when they asked her if she wanted to prosecute, the full story then came out, and the police took that decision out of her hands, believing that his intent had been to do her damage, perhaps permanent damage. And he did end up in prison. A dark place for someone to end, but that's not where the story ends. When he came out of prison, having had his sentence significantly reduced, the natural conclusion was to then move to a divorce. Very few divorces are pain-free, but the real pain came when, when it went to court, the judge made the decision That she was to give him a significant payout because after all, she was the one with the house. He was the one with nothing and the inability to work. So after losing her mental health, having physical damage acknowledged through his prison sentence, she then had to give him some of her money. Now, some may say that would be one heck of a thing to come back from, but come back she has. After spending a lot of time unable to be in the home, in fact with 2 broken wrists unable to even look after herself, she has now sold that house, moved on from all of the memories the house contained, and is now living in what I understand is a beautiful flat overlooking the sea at the coast. With a much stronger relationship with her 2 children, and life for her is starting again. When I contacted her asking if I could share this story with the public, her answer was, thank you, Caroline, for helping me get to where I am now, and yes, I would be honoured for my story to be used to give hope To others. Sometimes it does feel as if life keeps knocking us down every time we step forward, to the point of, why keep getting up? But there is always a reason. Have hope.
