Help BW & Her Children Leave Home

I am writing this on the behalf of my sister who needs help getting through a really traumatic situation: she is ready to leave her abusive husband and has no financial resources. She is the mother of two elementary school children & she fears for both her and their life as the abuse has progressively gotten worse. She has asked to be kept anonymous for safety reasons. Prior to her marriage, she used to be extremely independent and financially secure. So reaching out for help has been very difficult for her to do.

She met him through a mutual friend from her workplace in 2009 and their friendship swiftly became a romantic relationship in 2011 where she later moved to Virginia to live with him and got a job. Over the course of a year, she noticed his attitude towards her gradually began to sour & after an argument where he called her a "leeching lowlife whore" & harped on about how she wasn't making enough money to support herself if something were to happen to him & for her not to use his car (which was her only mode of transportation), she made the choice to leave & she traveled to Florida to live with a cousin. Shortly after, she learned she was pregnant with her first child & went back because she was promised by him that things would change and she felt that she was not prepared financially to raise a child on her own.

After their first child was born, he decided she should stay home for a year with their son and they moved into their own home. During this time he had quit his job, got his CDL and was working by driving truckloads cross country. Once she was at home with the baby now, things slowly became a problem to him once more. She began working again but had issues with childcare so she was let go from her job. Whenever he came off the road, he would blow a fuse & argue about the simplest of things, trash furniture, punch holes in the wall. On a night of drinking & after coming off of being on the road for 3 months, he came home extremely angry & immediately started to antagonize her, he demanded that she leave his house and do not drive his car once again. He would ask her to leave on multiple occasions after arguments but this time she decided to pack her things and the kids and move to Houston to live with her parents.

While getting situated in Texas, he called constantly to beg & apologize and asked her to return so they could be a family because he promised he would change for her and the kids. For awhile he was true to his words because as a truck driver he spent majority of his time on the road, however, when he would return home the arguments & destructive behavior would resume. She spoke to his friends & family members but more than often they would just tell her to be patient, let things boil over and to just give him time. Later a month after returning, another argument occurred & he physically assaulted her giving her a black eye and even destroyed the children’s bedroom along with their toys & personal belongings, this now was the final straw for her because she realized he was putting his whole family’s life in danger.

She packed her & her children's stuff & left for what she believed would be the last time. Unfortunately, she had to leave the company she was currently working for to move to Georgia with her sister in hopes of starting over. While in Georgia for 2 weeks, she began job hunting. While she was in Georgia, the cycle of him calling and wanting to be a family began again but she decided that this time she was not going to return. After being in Georgia for less than a month, she was served papers from the Supreme Court of Virginia. She went to court and the judge ordered that the children be returned to Virginia. She hired a lawyer to plead her case but once he realized that information he did not want brought up—such as him going by another name & identity, he’s currently married to someone else, etc he decided he no longer wanted to continue the case and that things would be different this time. She believed him because after having the court and lawyers involved it would now change the situation for the better.

Now 3 years later nothing has improved at all. Due to COVID and the children having virtual schooling and being the sole caretaker for the children, she was not able to find work outside the home nor remotely. Now with places slowly reopening and school returning to in-person, and companies are hiring, she is trying to enter the workplace again. She is trying to leave the situation she's currently in & take back control of her life so her and her children can be good, she just needs some assistance in doing so.

The money will be going towards

• Getting an apartment & covering bills, rent, utilities & groceries for a few months while she searches for a job
• Getting a lawyer for the custody battle & covering whatever legal fees that will follow
• A car
• Childcare

Anything helps, from a donation to even a simple share/retweet. Your efforts in helping her get her life back on track are truly appreciated.