I was debating on this. I've been debating for quite some time as this is hard to talk about. It's nawwed away at me for quite some time. I just want someone to talk too about it. *sigh* Here we go...
This takes some time to explain. I grew up in a stable home, a mom, a dad, and a sister. We were a typical middle class family and like a typical middle class family we had family issues. My earliest memory is of my mom and dad arguing about bills, about typical things. Typically when they fought my dad would storm out the house, and come back at a later time with presents as an apology. Kiss kiss make up that's my childhood, they'd fight and my dad would try to make things good again. I thought it was normal but, the signs of domestic abuse were already there.
I was 8 when the abuse started. We were waiting all night for my dad to get home to celeberate his new promotion. My dad worked at an office job as an architect from what I understand. He often brought his work home, or stayed late. it was a very stressful job for him but, that never excused what he did to us. It was about 8PM, we saw the lights through the window. I was shouting for joy that dad was home, my sister (she was a year older then me) had made a cake for him. She was so excited, and we all were. The door slams open, and my dad's tie is off, his shirt unbuttoned and he looks a mess. We run up to him, he slams the door shut looks down and looks down at us. He smells awfully weird, "Get the fuck off me. Go to your goddamned rooms and stay there" he says raising his voice. Mom rushes over and whispers for us to go to our rooms and lock the doors. Something serious has happened, the air has a toxic feeling about it. My sister rushes me to my room fully realizing what was going on. The fighting starts, but it soon turns into something scary. I hear a loud crash, and my mother screaming her head off. I can hear him hitting her, boop, boop, boop. I'm scared to death hiding under the covers. It's about 10PM, and my dad slams the door to his room shut. My sister and I we sneak out of our room. The dinning room is a mess, broken blades, all our hard work making his celebration dinner wasted. My mom is sitting on the ground sobbing, she's bleeding and a battered mess. She looks up and screams for us to get back in our rooms. The way she looked up at us, her sunken eyes; haunt me to this day.
Everything had changed. I was young but, even at that age I knew it had changed. The next morning, my father came into our room and explained what happened. he explains that "My actions were not myself. I was stressed from losing my promotion and angry and I suppose mommy and I became kids and fought. This didn't involve us, and I would never harm any of you", a complete and utter lie. Even at that age i knew he was being dishonest, I could see it in his face, his mannerisms there was nothing real about what he said, and i bought it hook, line and fucking sinker. My sister thank god was strong called him out "Why hurt her, dad?", and the fucker had nothing to say but, "I didn't mean too" and that was it. Mom even bought it and was happy with him again. I couldn't understand how she could just forgive the man who beat her. At the time I just assumed it was just a simple fight, i was young and couldn't fathom this. Dad took us to school and all was normal again. He picked us up and tookus out to eat at McDs as a way of getting us to shut up. Even my sister was cowed by his attitude change, and assumed it was just a one time mistake. The thing about domestic abuse is that it's never just a "one time' thing. Whats done is done, and this represented a new change in my father.
8/15/1987 a year after the abuse started, I consider this the worst day of my life. the day my grandfather passed away, and what little good in my dad died with him. Dad was close to his Dad, they spent a lot of time together specially after the death of his mom a few years earlier.I'd never seen my Dad cry but, he wept like a child at that funeral. It was eeriery hearing him weep like that but, it served as a precursor to what was to come. Before my father never touched us,we were his kids and untouchable. He tired to make efforts into being a good father for us to make up for what he did to mom. I look back and those were the good days. After his father died he became withdrawn, he became very different, a very scary person or maybe that was who he really was all along coming out.
He was watching TV and my sister and I started fighting. He gets up in a fit grabs us both and literally throws us in our rooms. he comes in and starts beating us both with a belt. Never said a word, never said anything he just looks down at us face twisted in rage gets his belt and starts beating us both. we're both crying and screaming and he just keeps on beating us, and then walks out and locks our room leaving us in there for the rest of the day and night. As he kept on drinking, the abuse got worse. My father drank to drown his sorrows, he drank because, he was a terrible person and justified it by drinking it. everytime he drank, he became different but, eventually that was the only person we remember. Whenever dad was home we hid. we did everything we could to not go home after school or hang out with friends but, mom was the true victim she took the hits so we didn't have too. She loved us like that. She was soo good to us, and it angers me what that bastard did to her. The abuse worsened after Dad lost his job. Before we treasured the few hours we had without him around but, after he lost his job he became monster. We thought he was bad before but, this was a whole new level of horror. School was our only escape from him and he took that from us. Before we would either take a ride from friends, or my mom but, now he would pick us up right as soon as school let out and not a minute late. If we were late we got beat for however many minutes we were late, if we cried we didn't get to eat. Money was tight he would say, and only some of us deserved to eat.
My mom was an emotional and physical wreck. My earliest memory of her was how beautiful she was, how happy she was and now she was rail thin and looked dead. Dad had taken everything from her and us. My sister was a strong girl fought him at every turn and she suffered the worst. Dad tormented her, he would lock her in the attic (our new punishment room) and let her stay there all weekend without food or water or until she begged for forgiveness. Me? he never did much to me. Maybe i was so pathetic he couldn't even bother. At school i was tormented by bullies, I was weak and perfect game for them. I would come home after getting beat up, and my dad would just laugh "Some man you are. You get your blood from your mother, a cowards blood!", hell he even encouraged them one time to beat me up. It saved him the effort of having to do it himself. To be frank we were all beatn down by this monster and there was no escape. I was 14 when my mom gave in and in a final act of defiance tried to kill herself. She tried to cut her wrists but, dad caught her and got to her to the er. when they questioned him on why she had bruises, his explanation was "She was very self abusive" and they fucking bought it. No questions asked, they bought it. I wasn't suprised, I had gone to teachers and adults before and tried to get help and they either ignored me or had my parents brought in and that made things worse for me and everyone else. In the end there was no escape from this monster.
Miracles do happen. My father coming home from work when he in a drunken stupor tripped over his feet and broke his pelvis. After ghe was discharged from the hospital he became bedridden at home. The abuse stopped and we were in control. Some life had been brought into mom again. When i say miracles happen, they do. Father was in his bed eatting when he started choking ack ack ack. I panicked as i had no idea what to do, i called my sister and mom over and was going to dial 911. Mom grabbed my hand and told me "no". My sister, my mom and i watched as Dad choked to death and just like that the man that had ruined our lives, that had tormented us for so long, that fucking monster was gone. Mom grabbed us and cried I should have been happy but, I wasn't, I didn't feel good. It felt too easy, I wanted him to face justice for what he did.
Life returned to normal after his death. we moved in with my aunt. My mom got a job working as a cashier at a store. life was hard, we struggled but, we were happy in the end. After my dad died my mom i saw her smile again for the first time in years. I should have been happy but, was I? No, i wasn't it felt hollow. Again too easy for him to just die like that and they all celebrate. I won't deny that today my mom is happy, she's remarried to a wonderful man and retired, my sister is married to a wonderful man too and has two children but, why should our happiness come at the expense of one life? I ask myself was this worth it, should we have saved him? The man was a monster, he was a good person once but, his death felt wrong. I mean it wasn't one minute he's alive, and the next he's dead and we're happy. We spent years in therapy, i still have PTSD, body displacement issues, and trouble forming relations. My mom had multiple suicide attempts after that, and my new dad (he is a good person. perhaps one of the few left on this world) spent years with her before she finally trusted him. My dads legacy haunted us but, i don't feel like we won.