He's Back! The Weight of Being the Secretary of Social Responsibility & Abused

Are You Trapped in an Unhappy Marriage Because You Believe That You Can’t Afford to Leave?”



I think what bothered me most...why I wasn't running into the streets w/a megaphone hollering "XYZ" is abusing me, help" was my job. Secretary of Social Responsibility. Think about that for a moment. That was a "heavy" title to bear for me already. This seemed to magnify both the title, and the weight of it. Abused women came to US...then again, so did prisoners who'd done time for every crime you could think of (there were 7 departments under social responsibility) including abuse. I just put that together while writing this.

ANYWAY, it then occurred to me that I have a plethora of resources for abused women at my fingertips. A rolodex of help right in front of me - literally! The unfortunate thing was that I sat in a secretarial pool. There were 3 of us in the same office. No privacy. All of these places want your name, address and phone number. I couldn't even pretend I was calling on a client's behalf because I wouldn't have been able to leave my information without the other secretaries learning of my situation.

It was almost 2 weeks later, and he hadn't raised his hand to me again since that night he was drinking so I didn't view my situation as being urgent anymore. I decided to take a few days to think about how to do this. I mean, in my mind, I wasn't an "abused woman" per say. I was a woman who he had abused on ONE occasion...and he'd been drinking that night...and he was very apologetic afterwards & appearing to be honestly regretting hurting me...and I got rid of the alcohol...and he of course promised the he wouldn't drink anymore...and swore on his grandmother's life that he'd never raise a hand to me again. Sound familiar?