My Mum

by Jade
(England )

My mum died in 2015 peacefully in her sleep, she was 40 years old and died of heart failure. For 14 years she suffered from domestic violence, and I want to tell you her story.

My mum met Bob when she was 24 she at the time was a single mother to me and my sister, one year after my father left. She was naive and young, he swept her off her feet and made her feel special. She was smitten.

The first time he hit her that I remember was late at night and on a school night. We ran to the police station in our pajamas she didn't let him back in the home until my mum realized she was pregnant with my brother, she was frightened a single, jobless mother of 2 and pregnant. Everything was good.

We moved to live near her family, Marcus was born, and he was violent again. She threw him out. I slept over the road a few weeks later at my friend's house, when I came back no one was present. My mum picked me up that afternoon, she'd been in the hospital, and blood covered the house, and bloody handprints stained the window, and the door handles where she had tried to escape. She had four broken ribs, was deaf in one ear and her face was a mess. She carried the scars from that night until the day she died.

We relocated to Bradford to live in a domestic violence refugee. Eventually, we moved back to Doncaster to be near the family again when we believed it was safe. We were wrong. My mum continued to suffer until I was 16, I was 2 when it began. He even once kidnapped my brother to force my mum to stay.

When it was all over my mum met Peter who loved her unconditionally and would not lay a hand on her.

My mum was the most unfailing woman I have ever met, and yet it took 14 years and me standing up to that scum of a man to help my mum escape.

Be brave be strong; there is someone out there to help you. YOU CAN DO IT!! You are strong, you are beautiful, and I believe in you. Do not suffer as long as my mum did.

Good luck