The First Blows

The First Blows

    About 5:00 in the afternoon on a hot humid day in July, I was shocked into the realization, that I had made the biggest mistake of my life.  My mother had died on June 1, 1975.  Well Steve proposed on June 10th and we had a church wedding on June 27th of the same year. I didn't
question the rush, since I thought he was the only one for me.  He could turn the charm on very thick. This was a very vulnerable time for me. My mother had died, my father turned to alcohol and I was all alone.  With marriage on my mine I didn't even think about the fact that my dad put the family farm in my name on the same day of the proposal.  Many times I have wondered if that was a coincidence.
    Anyhow, approximately three weeks after our marriage I
received the ultimate shock of my life.  We had a heated discussion about him borrowing my dad's truck.  I don't know which one hurt the most.  Was it the blows to my head which gave me two black eyes or the unexpected cruel words he blurted out as he poured a 2 litre Coke over my hair.
    Automatically I asked for a divorce.  He then threatened taking one-half of the property given to me by my father.  He couldn't do it legally, but I didn't know that at the time.
There was no way I would let him take my inheritance.  He
took something more valuable than property. I still wonder sometimes which blows hurt the most in the marriage doomed to be filled with abuse.