Tell Somebody

"Tell Somebody: Two Years, Four Months, One Week, and A Day - The Memories and Musings of a Battered Wife - A Trilogy, Part I" is the first leg of the journey of young Stephanie Sweeney from friendship to courtship, to a perfect love, and an early marriage to her first love--her one true love, Henry Earl Henderson. When unforeseen, unexpected violence occurred early in her marriage, Stephanie was frightened and confused. Stephanie, however, continued to hold high hopes for the cessation of the emotional abuse and physical violence that had become her life. Tell Somebody recounts the quest for the redemption of love Stephanie and Henry once shared, always with a hopeful desire for a "happily ever after" ending.

Tell Somebody is a story that did not want to be told. But this experience had to come out of the shadows.The secrecy, the silence had to end. Tell Somebody is my experience. I diligently tried to ignore the pain my heart recalled--of him, and what he did to me all those years ago. Denial only made it worse. As the heart beats regularly--in season, out of season, on a mundane day, as well as a special day--without prompting, so were the heartless beatings by the man who claimed to love Stephanie, as he often said, ''from the first time I laid eyes on you.'' Each beat of Stephanie''s heart recalls the beatings she suffered alone in fearful silence. Just as she was not forthcoming about the beatings, Stephanie stubbornly resisted that plea from within to Tell Somebody of her past experience. Even as the years passed by, the pain, the memories, and the shame persisted.The story hovered uncomfortably in the untouchable places of her mind and heart.

Tell Somebody deals openly and honestly with domestic violence from the perspective of the victim.Though the abuse silenced Stephanie in her marriage, Stephanie had her inner thoughts to keep her company during those difficult days. Stephanie believed that the love Henry claimed to have for her would eventually stop the beatings; so, she continued to try to love him--until that day. Fast forward, years later, the pain and the shame that was Stephanie''s life with Henry, demands to be heard. Nothing could quieten the anguish of that still, small voice inside the head and heart of Stephanie, haunting her, saying, "Tell Somebody, Tell Somebody, Tell Somebody."

Just as that annoying buzz of a mosquito around your ear at bedtime keeps you awake, so did Tell Somebody. Whenever I heard on the news of a woman being beaten by the man she loved, especially being killed by him, I knew I had to tell my story. But I had to wait to Tell Somebody. I did not want to hurt my parents more than they were already hurt by my ordeal. I did not want to hurt my mother-in-law more than she was already hurt either. I also could not tell this story before I was healed enough to reveal my truth. I am there, finally. My truth is what it is. All the good, all the bad, all the unpleasantness--the hurt, the pain, the naivete. It is all mine. I own it.