A few Friday nights go I slipped down some wet stairs in a night club and cracked my head open. You could say it was a slightly messier night out than our average Fridays down Po Na Na, belting our hearts out over the karaoke machine to the likes of Adele and Rihanna.
Blood everywhere, me panicking thinking I was just an avenue away from Deaths Door, but anyway, this post isn’t about me. It’s about a lady I met whilst we were waiting to be seen in A&E.
Her eyes were drowning in the most horrific puddles of black and purple bruising id ever seen on anyone, anywhere.
It shocked me that she was still able to see, let alone even lift her eyelids.
After chatting to her for a little while and a couple of shared cigarettes later, me and my friend got to learn that she was an unfortunate statistic of Domestic Violence.
Her ever so loving boyfriend would beat her day in, day out. As the lyrics to this song go “little lady you’re trembling with fear, you’re skinny frame kind of resembles a dear” well...This lyric hits the nail on the head. At a guess id say she was around 39 years old, but the strain of being unloved and uncared for had clearly taken its toll.
She had hardly any teeth left and she was so skinny her skin sagged down her face.
After talking for ten minutes I was in floods of tears, how could anyone do this to another human being? How could she be so stupid and keep going back to him?
I soon learnt that this poor, fragile lady wasn’t stupid. She was terrified.
Terrified that if she told anyone about the abuse she was suffering, her boyfriend would get arrested and then get other people to carry on the violence whilst he was behind bars.
The way the justice system is operating as of late, he probably wouldn’t even end up getting locked up, in which case, she would get it from him. Only ten times harder.
This woman is living her life trapped in a repetitive nightmare.
I felt so useless and selfish as there was nothing I could have said or done to help her, I tried my hardest to get her to tell the hospital staff but her lips were sealed.
I just pray to god that I, and everyone else I care about, and you reading this, will never get ourselves in to a relationship like this.
Every human on this planet has the right to be happy and every human on this planet deserves to feel unconditional love.
4 weeks on and my head is now fully healed, the glue has washed out of my scalp and all I’m left with is some scar tissue and a fortunately hidden, stumpy area of hair from where the Doctor had to cut my hair away underneath.
4 weeks on and I can almost bet my life that this lady is still acting as a human punch bag, still trapped in a nightmare, still walking around with severely bruised eyes and still receiving stares, funny looks and even the occasional giggle, for doing so.
I am so thankful to have met such an inspirational and beautiful lady. May the angels above guide her to safety.
