Thank you all for your prayers. I am sure they helped in many ways. Here’s what happened:

On Monday, my brother-in-law assaulted me. He has a history of domestic violence, and he has a volatile temper. When he loses it, he really loses it. Gerry and I were visiting at his house in Bristol, CT, when he lost his temper. I decided to leave, when he snapped. BIL decided I wasn’t leaving and he blocked my exit and started coming at me swearing at the top of his lungs. I was freaked. Gerry pulled him away from the door, and I escaped. BIL then turned off the lights that illuminate his back woodsy yard, which left me in total blackness. Then he came after me, swearing and taunting me. I stumbled across his back deck since I couldn’t see anything, and I finally found the stairs. At that point he tried to push me down the stairs. My walker was at the bottom of the stairs where I had left it and I started across the lawn and was stumbling down a rather steep hill trying to get to my car. Then he tried to push me down the hill. Sigh.

All the while I could hear Gerry in the background screaming at BIL to stop. When I got into the car and locked the doors, I opened the window and yelled for Gerry, saying I have to go. I heard Gerry yell “Go, go, go!” so I went, went went!

BIL lives at the end of a deserted dead-end dirt road. I pulled the van around the corner on to the paved road, turned off car, and waited for Gerry. I waited an hour. Then I left.

When I got home I found that Gerry had left a nasty voice mail for me because I “stranded him.” I gathered a few clothes and things together, and I just left. That was Monday night. I drove and cried and drove and cried for two days. Yesterday morning I checked into a hotel in Myrtle Beach, SC. The first thing I did was call Gerry. All he could do is yell at me because he couldn’t find his cell phone charger. WTF!?!?!

Gerry and his brother have to be in Florida for a meeting on Thursday, and when I called him he was already driving to Florida. I have decided to go home. Damn! Why did I drive so far!? It’ll take me another two days to get home, but it is home that I need most right now. Gerry won’t be back home for a week.

I am devastated. Gerry and I never fight. We both like it that way since we are both sort of laid-back people. In the twenty-something years of marriage I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times he has raised his voice to me. And now this?

I am a bit calmer this morning. I’m going to take my time driving home. I’ll probably sleep in the van on the way home, so I don’t know if I’ll have Internet until I get there.

Thank you all so much for the prayers. On my way home I will be stopping at the police station in Connecticut in the town where it all happened. I’ll be filing assault charges against BIL. I’ll post again then.