We recently had to get a new cable box.
With the new box came 3 free months of HBO and Cinemax, so we’ve been catching up on movies.
This morning, we have a snow day, and while the kids are happily playing, I decided to check out a documentary called “Every F*&^ing Day of My Life.”
It was a documentary, chronicling the last days of a woman who killed her husband after 18 years of horrifying abuse.
She was sentenced to 10 years in jail.
Her oldest son has 5 years in jail.
He helped with the killing.
The father abused everyone in the family, but the mother, the worst.
The story was truly unbelievable and sickening.
The descriptions of the abuse from the boys.
The way the woman described the abuse in such a detached manner, because after 18 years, it was just what her life had become.
The neighbors knew.
Some called the cops, but the husband had threatened to kill the kids if he was ever arrested and so when the cops would arrive, the family would say everything was fine.
There was even a spot in the woods called “The Kill-Me Spot” where the husband would take the wife once or twice a week, with a machete and give her 10 seconds to convince him not to hill her right then.
I’ve been crying for an hour.
So often, we say “I don’t understand why she wouldn’t just leave.”
“Why wouldn’t she just tell the cops what was happening?”
I think those of us who say that have no idea what it would truly be like in that situation, and those statements, alone, are a way of placing blame on the woman.
I watched this morning and was just astounded at the evil that lives inside some people and the incredible resilience and strength that lives inside others.
As she was taken to jail to begin her sentence, she said she went to jail with a happy heart because she knows that her children would never be hurt again.
She wishes she could be with them, but sacrificing her presence for their safety was the best way she could protect them in the end.
I don’t really have a point to this particular post.
I was just so sickened and yet moved by this story.
A reminder to not take a good life for granted, definitely, but also a reminder of how pervasive this problem really is in our society.
We can’t turn a blind eye.
So sad indeed!
Comment by Angela — January 21, 2011 @ 11:20 am |
So true. Am familiar with the story & it sickens me that the jury found her guilty. It was justifiable & in my opinion, an act to protect herself & her children. There is no reason for her to be in jail & that pour kid who helped. His life is going to be ruined while he is raped & who knows what else will happen to him in that prison. All because God put him in a family with a monster living as their ‘father’.
Comment by ckcorcoran — January 21, 2011 @ 11:29 am |
In the south, ‘he needed killing’ has been used as a defense in court. I guess after reading this, I can understand the validity of that argument.
Comment by Mary — January 21, 2011 @ 2:37 pm |