As Bad as it Gets

As bad as it gets.  I just happened across a link on Shelter from the Storm's Facebook page.  I didn't feel, after listening to the content that I could share it.  It was as bad as it gets.  It was a 911 call from a child requesting the police as the child's mama was being beaten in the background by her husband.  I think about the situations where no one knows.  I think about the silent ways that people are abused and no one hears... until it's too late.  Why?  Why does she not see what is directly in front of her?  I'm sure she must think it can't possibly be as bad as everyone thinks it is, right?  "These types of things don't happen to me," she reasons.  And yet they do.  What goes thru the mind of a man who beats a woman... mentally or physically?  Do they think that they are not as bad as they truly are??  What leads them to be this person?  What causes them to be loving one minute and terrifying the next?  How do they convince her to go along with it?
Be aware.  You think it will never happen in your world.  It's just something that happens on the news... in someone else's circle.... until it does happen to you.  Don't turn a blind eye.  When do words turn to violence.  Do you know?  When will it be too late?
I still shake my head sometimes trying to clear the fog.  After three long years it is still inconceivable that she is gone.  It doesn't make sense.  I wonder if it ever will.  In some ways I hope it doesn't.  Somehow it gives me hope.  Hope that I will get to sit and laugh with her again.