“your lucky you almost had a miscarriage. Be very careful that u don’t trip again” The doctor told me that i needed to be on bedrest in hospital for a week so i was admitted for observation.
My husband came to see me everyday asking for forgiveness. He promised that he would never hurt me again. I didn’t know whether i believed him. i was pregnant and had no job. Where was i going to go?
I didn’t know what to do and i knew i couldn’t go back home to my parents who were poor and could not afford to feed two extra mouths. They were so excited when i married a man they considered very well off.
So i went back home after one week to my husband. I thought he had learnt his lesson when i almost lost the baby. He was so loving and so excited when we got a son Kevin. Kevin was the light of my life. Spoiled but sweet. We had another child after that, a girl Mercy.
Most of the time things were good but sometimes my husband would get into a rage, hitting and punching me. Once he broke three of my ribs and another knocked out two of my front teeth. He always took me to hospital and paid the bills. I used to tell the doctor that i was a klutz so clumsy and accident prone tried to leave sometimes but he always came begging me or my family to give him another chance.
Things came to a head when Kevin was in primary at around six years of age. We were called to Kevin’s school and told he had beaten up a girl who had taken his book. In the headmasters office my husband brushed it off as a minor incidence. “that’s just how boys are. Sometimes they like to fight. It doesn’t mean he is bad.”
i told Kevin off for beating a girl. he looked me straight in the eye and said, “then if it’s bad to hit a girl why does dad beat you? I was too embarrassed to reply. but as i looked from father from son i had an insight. i saw what my son would become one day to another woman if i didn’t do something.
my husband dropped us home after verbally abusing kelvin for discussing home issues in public. He also told Kevin to expect a beating when he got home. He wasn’t angry because Kevin had beaten up the girl but because of saying infront of the headmaster and teacher that his father beat me.
I waited for my husband to leave and then I went and packed my clothes and those of my children. I went into the wardrobe and removed a stash of cash i had hidden and a bank account card.
I told Kevin we were going visiting and we needed to get his sister from school. Without looking back at the big house with beautiful furniture and everything a gal could dream of, i closed the door to my nightmares and opened a gate to a new life.
I wasn’t going back to my parents because my husband would find me there. But i had made a friend who my husband didn’t know about. She had seen what my husband had done to me on numerous occasions and she had told me if i ever needed a place to stay i could go stay with her.
I know this will be hard. But in the end to save my children who i love more then myself its time to get out. Am praying to God for strength to help me do what i have to do for my children.
