10/03/2026
OCTOBER IS DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AWARENESS MONTH.💜
I’ve asked myself many times, “Where do I even begin?”
🦋
My first encounter with abuse was in my own family. My brother struggled with drug addiction, and I experienced both verbal and physical abuse.
Then, at 18 years old, I entered a relationship that became extremely dangerous. He played Russian roulette, tried to drown me, tried to smother me with a pillow, bruised me with an iron, and physically assaulted me.
Then came my first marriage.
My husband was hallucinating under the influence of drugs when he hit me so hard that my nose split open and the bleeding would not stop. I rushed to the hospital. The doctor asked me, “What did he hit you with?”
I told him, “His fist.”
That day, while lying in the emergency room, I heard a voice say:
“My child, I told you I would never leave you or forsake you. I’m here.”
That moment changed something inside of me.
I realized that although I had experienced things that could have broken me, God had kept me here for a reason.
I am sharing my story because someone else may be living through abuse right now and wondering if there is a way out.
There is.
You are not what happened to you.
You are not the abuse you endured.
You are not alone.
And your story does not have to end where the pain began.
Today, I can say this with a grateful heart:
I survived. I healed. I chose peace.
I am happily divorced, at peace, and living my best life.
My scars are part of my story, but they do not define me.
If sharing my story helps even one person find the courage to seek safety, choose themselves, and believe that there is life after abuse, then everything I survived was not in vain.
This is my story.
This is my testimony.
This is my life after abuse.
