Many decades ago, in what seems like a different life time now Mel experienced and survived domestic violence!
Mel has found her voice just for you. She lived through horrendous years of abuse in the hope that life would get better - that the Devil would realise how much she loved him, and love her differently in return. She hoped he would wake up one day and realise just what he had, and appreciate her perseverance and love her unconditionally. Wrong, stop right there! The only thing he loved was the control he had over her. Somehow, somewhere along the way, Mel had handed over her power, her life force and her spark, without even realising she had. He manipulated and coerced and abused her slightly at first, progressively more viciously as he was able to take over who she was.
That moment of realisation that her relationship was not like everyone else’s, that she was actually being abused, hurt the most. She thought they were in love, continually tried harder not to cause any issues, everything was always her fault.
Eventually, Mel regained a small glimpse of the person she knew herself to be. She thought, “I am an intelligent woman. I am independent and work full time. I grew up in a loving family environment, and I would rather live life alone than continue to live like this. I never want my daughter to think this is what love looks like.”
Mel had no idea how she was going to leave with her young daughter, or when the right time was she just knew she had to leave to survive, or stay and eventually die.
In a split-second she realised her life with her abuser was never going to change, his promises had all been broken, and the abuse was only getting worse.