My aunt recently opened up to me about why she ended her marriage of 33 years. I was shocked as I listened to her speak about the man that I grew up calling my uncle. She spoke of how belittling and demeaning he was. She talked about the verbal and physical abuse. It wasn’t until he pulled a gun on her that she decided to leave.



As I wrote “Sisters” I thought of the women in my family who have suffered abuse and I thought specifically about their silence. What if my great aunt, my grandmother’s sister, had shared her story with her niece? What if she had spoken specifically about how trapped she felt with 6 young kids and no money of her own? Would my aunt, my mother’s sister, my grandmother’s daughter, have done things differently? Perhaps she would have known the signs when they presented themselves and not thought that she was the cause of the temper or the anger. Perhaps she would have opted to have a separate bank account and keep some money for herself and not sign her paychecks over to him. Perhaps she would have known that his abuse didn’t need a trigger. Perhaps she would not have stayed to the point of having a gun pointed in her face.



What did my aunt teach her daughter by staying in that marriage? When someone claims that they are doing it for the children, do they think about what they are exposing the children to? What did my cousin see? What will her dating life be like? What if my aunt took her children and left instead of staying in the abusive marriage?



I wanted to tell this story to give a voice to the women who sit in silence. I wanted to tell this story to encourage the women to stop being silent and to speak up and share their story because their silence is helping no one, but their story could save so many. There is power in being heard.