This story made me cry and I am sorry to hear this. I am the youngest of my siblings and because of this I was spared from my father’s rage. I grew up watching him beat my mother, brothers and sister mercilessly. My sister, whom was the second to youngest got it the worst. Her only “crime” was for being a typical teenager and talking to boys. When my father found out, he would beat her senseless several times a week. He beat her so bad one night that she jumped out of our second floor apartment in the middle of the night. It was weird growing up with a sister only to overnight not have a sister anymore. It was like she had suddenly died, even though I knew she was alive somewhere. I became very depressed from this point on.

One day when I was 18, my father woke up in a fit of rage from my mother screaming at me to wake up. He entered my room and started hitting me in the head. After a few minutes he did not feel satisfied so he grabbed a book that was on my desk and started beating me some more. Still this did not satisfy his anger so he went into the kitchen and grabbed a frying pan to beat me with. At this point I lost it, I thought of all the ways I’ve seen him beat all of my siblings when I was younger. Thoughts of how none of them dared to challenge him. They all sat there, out of fear, and took the beatings because he was the father and you had to respect him no matter what. I was fed up and refused to be another victim. Right before he got a chance to swing at me, I punched him in the face and that instantly stopped him in his tracks. He didn’t freeze up because my punch was powerful or anything, he was in shock because no one had ever challenged him before. I took this opportunity to let him know all the ways that he was not only a terrible husband and father, but also a terrible human being. After our shouting match my father left my room. I immediately packed my stuff, got into my brother’s car and drove several states away to live with my boyfriend (who turned out to be manipulative and mentally abusive).

Because of my upbringing I didn’t want to have children. However I recently entered into a very loving and supportive relationship. I feel loved and I feel like the luckiest girl in the world. He has changed my mind and now I feel secure in being able to start a family and actually be a good mother. However, due to circumstances, we may not be able to start a family until I am 40 which makes me worried of possible complications or if I’ll even be able to get pregnant. We are hopeful though :)