Post #76 – Women’s Memoir Writing, ScrapMoir – Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnett
WELCOME TO WOMEN’S MEMOIRS CONTEST VALENTINE’S DAY READATHON
This is the seventh Valentine’s Day Memoir Contest story to be published in our first-ever ReadAThon. In this blog, we’re announcing an Honorable Mention for our second category — Worst Valentine’s Day that Turns Positive. Each hour, for 11 hours, we are publishing an award-winning Valentine’s Day story.
We have four categories–
Worst Valentine’s Day
Worst Valentine’s Day Eventually Becoming Positive (Might Take Many Years)
Best Valentine’s Day
Most Humorous Valentine’s Day (In Retrospect, If Not at the Time)
and are publishing the award winners in that sequence. For each category, we publish the winner followed by the runner(s) up in alphabetical order.
Worst Valentine’s Day (Becoming Positive): Honorable Mention
CERTAIN VALENTINE’S DAYS
E. Loreen Flory
My first marriage seemed to involve Valentine’s day from beginning to end. After only a few dates, Mike asked me to marry him. He wanted the date to be Valentine’s Day. Around Christmas, Mike told me he didn’t think he was ready yet to be married. I was disappointed but tried to be understanding and didn’t want him to do anything he wasn’t sure of. He called the wedding date off a total of three times.
Fast forward a few years. We got married (not on Valentine’s day) and had an adorable baby girl. We were having problems, most involving him lying about looking for a job, trying to sponge off my mother, disrespecting me. I was considering leaving him when I found out I was pregnant with our son so I decided I would stay and see if things got better. My beautiful son was born and my life would have been perfect if I was getting along with my husband, but that was not the case.
He tried to get me back to work one week after our son was born even though I had had my tubes tied the next day. Mike wasn’t thrilled about either pregnancy so we decided it would be for the best. I was in so much pain from the surgery and after a fight, he went to the pharmacy to get my medicine and threw it at my newly sutured stomach.
I went back to work after four weeks and even though Mike leased a cab he could drive whenever he wanted, he would not give me a ride to work or our children a ride to the daycare (which was the place I worked). It was January and I had a 21- month-old daughter and a 6-week-old son out in the snow in Illinois waiting for a bus. It was two blocks to the bus stop from my apartment and two more blocks to get to work after the bus. Our son had colic so that kept me up all night many nights with him. No help from Mike.
So here comes Valentine’s Day, year four. Mike had been calling me names and verbally abusing me for weeks so it was just another day to me, or so I thought. I was trying to catch the bus home from work with the babies. The bus was apparently full because it passed us by and it was freezing outside! We walked more than half way home before the next bus came and picked us up.
We lived in a garden apartment and as I was walking down the four stairs to the door, I slipped. I threw myself backwards so as not to land on my son and slid on cracked knees down the stairs. It hurt so much. I called for Mike so he could get the kids inside. My daughter was at the top of the stairs saying , “Mommy, Mommy.” Mike never came to the door. Finally I was able to get up after making sure my kids were OK and unlocked the door.
I walked in and something didn’t seem right but first I had to take snow clothes off the babies and myself. When I got them settled, I looked around. The first thing I noticed was Mike’s Atari video game system and all the games were gone. The house wasn’t messed up so I was confused because I thought we may have been robbed. I started looking around and that’s when I saw all Mike’s stuff gone. Clothes, shoes everything!
I got the hint. I called the cab company and asked if he was at work. This was before cell phones. They said he was. He had left me on the day he originally said he wanted to marry me. The only difference was that now I had two babies in a $650 per month apartment while I made $400 per month at my job.
About a week later Mike called me. He accused me of not caring that he left because I didn’t call the police. I asked him why, when I got his point, I didn’t need to look like a jerk to the police. He then went on and on about how relaxed he was now that he was gone from me and the kids. I asked him if he realized he left on Valentine’s Day and without any warning or spoken word to me and he just chuckled.
That was the total end. I channeled the song, “I Will Survive.” I lived it, I flourished and I’m still living it. Now I am married to a wonderful man for 20 years who loves and respects me. A man who has sacrificed everything for me and our seven children. A man who has never verbally abused me or purposefully made me suffer.
Valentine's Day, 2010
