The Channel

During the time of living together, the truth about this man became apparent. He had drastic personality changes which kept me on edge. This man had a split personality. I never thought that I would be abused by the man I had fallen in love with. By living with him, learning him as a person, I realized that I was living with a stranger. As our relationship progressed, we began to have small arguments which led to him putting his hands on me. From that day forward, it became a pattern of him being abusive toward me. Finding out the real man became manifest. I didn’t know what I had gotten myself into at all. The painful abuse that I was enduring kept me so frightened. I did not know where to run or who to tell about it to make it stop. I was being punished for every mistake I made. I noticed that everything done wrong, per his perception, resulted in my being physically abused.

Having misunderstandings in different situations would lead to arguments. He would become very aggressive and abusive toward me. I had to get away, because I felt trapped living in Windsor. This terrifying relationship was too much for me to bear. During the nights, I would cry in bed with a sore and brutally beaten body. I would pray for the pain to go away.

I don’t know why I felt like I couldn’t leave this man. I was still a young woman and wasn’t using my brain good enough to get help and leave. I knew that I could not return home to my family in Detroit with bruises. No family would want to see their own daughter beaten up with black eyes. Every time I would regain consciousness while he was beating on me, he threatened to hit me in the other eye. This threat would make me too afraid to cry and scream out, "STOP!"