Page 58 - Daphne Hart - 89 and Feeling Fine
P. 58

As if it were my fault, I didn’t have boys.

          That was the only problem: no boys.


          Sometimes I would hide when he came home. Once, I

          was kicked down four flights of stairs, eight months into
          the last pregnancy. The reason? I put a crease in his shirt

          sleeves when I ironed it and dared to tell him, “Why
          don’t you do it yourself?”


          Poor Shernett — she refused to die, although she was

          very traumatized by it all. When she was born, she didn't
          breathe for a good two minutes or more.


          Because of that, for fifteen years I suffered the worst
          abuse  you  can  imagine  —  physical,  mental,

          psychological — and my self-esteem was below zero.

          Battered and bruised, and with no one to turn to, I turned
          to his mother. May her soul rest in peace. She would

          tell me that if I wanted to leave, she would take care of
          the children. But where could I possibly go?


          She offered to build me a little room at the back of her
          house, but I would not accept, because I was deathly

          afraid of her son. Dear Miss Winnie — she would take

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