As funny as it looks in the cartoon above, this is an every day thing in many countries. Why did I decide to bring it up? Well I had a lunch date with a friend from high school today, and she was telling me about one of her ex-boyfriends who once beat her up like there was no tomorrow. All because she wanted to leave. This is how the story went. They lived in different cities, and she came to visit and celebrate his Birthday. There were a lot of people at the dinner in one of the restaurants, and then they all went to a night club. That’s where he told her to go home, because he wanted to spend time with another girl. Well, you get the idea, and I am sure you got the same firs assumption as me.

Of course my friend didn’t leave, threw him a fit and everyone went home. At home he got mad at her, so as he was yelling, she started packing. The realization came too late, she has almost left the building when he chased her, started grabbing her and forcing back into the apartment. By that time she didn’t care if she left her stuff behind, a little while later she was ready to leave her purse, just to get away from him. And trust me she was yelling, no one came to help. The neighbor guy didn’t want to get involved, because he was afraid he’d get punched too.

He dragged her back into the apartment, and started hitting her, and throwing her down. One time she even hit her temple on the edge of a bed side table. And that’s when everything went into slow motion and she thought to herself – “I can die”.  Good thing she didn’t. But she was all bruised, and hurt her elbow so bad, it took 6 months to heal. Now my friend took karate when she was back in high school, but according to her, she couldn’t hurt him, or punch him. She tried, but there was no strength in her punch.

The morning came, she barely slept that night. And in the AM she was getting ready to leave, but they started talking, he explained himself, and said that it will never happen again.

I don’t think it did, but she was bruised all over, and I am sure it left some sort of an emotional scar.

The thing that scares me in that story the most is the fact that they got back together after the fight. She forgave him. But they did break up several months later. And he was the one who broke it off.

A couple weeks ago I interpreted a seminar on self-defence at an orphanage in Russia. I can’t explain how useful those are! I have been to a few of them while living in NJ, and I want to highly recommend those! No matter how old you are, or how safe your town or neighborhood is, it’s important to know how to protect yourself, sometimes from the ones we live with.