My Story – Melinda

I met him just before 15th birthday. He was 22 and had a really nice car. He was nice and funny and made me laugh. I was pregnant 4 months later. He didn’t want his family to know. I only saw him a few times during the next nine months. His family made him offer marriage. I thought we would be a family. We had been married for 6 months when the abuse started. I was 16 with a husband and a son.
He would always start by hitting me in the face to get my glasses off my face knowing I couldn’t see without them. I was stabbed in my back twice during the marriage. He would get me to the floor and continually kick me. Once it took 3 officers to pull him off of me. Once he physically picked me up and threw me out the kitchen door. I have been dumped out on the freeway over an hour from home.
The worst of the abuse he had gotten me to the floor and was slamming my head into the tile floor and then he was kicking me telling me to get up. I was paralyzed!!! I couldn’t move anything!! He finally realized that he had actually hurt me and he called the police. Of course he lied about how it happened. I was so afraid of him to tell the truth!! I spent the next several months praying I would walk again. Thankfully the paralysis was temporary and with physical therapy I regained full use again. I returned home to him and my 2 children.
Our marriage lasted 7.5 years. Finally in April 1989 after fighting all night long and picking myself up off the floor several times I just decided I had had enough. I called the police and took my 2 children, only the clothing on our back, and $40 and left!!!