A Survivor's Story

Below is an excerpt of a letter written to Greenhouse Shelter. It will give the rest of us a good understanding of the life of abused women.

" If you or anyone could have cringed each time I cringed when the abuser spoke of killing me if I left him, or felt the undue responsibility of pacifying or soothing an enraged, jealous man... If you could have seen the razor partly concealed in his hand, jumped each time the doorbell or phone rang, hid with me whenever family and neighbors came to visit for fear of them seeing broken furniture, broken arms or blackened eyes. Maybe if you had...run along with me down the main street in my town, in broad daylight, from a man who was totally out of control. Or hid in the basement of a friend for days in hopes that we would not be found. Or felt the terror of knowing that, no matter where we would go, we would be stalked and hunted like animals...(Then,) perhaps, we could have left our children, mother, friends and jobs together and stayed in a shelter with other women with similar or more horrifying experiences."

--Excerpt from a letter written by a resident of the Greenhouse Shelter