Article June 11, 2001 Issue

Escape from an abusive marriage

It started with finding the courage within.

By Diane Cultum

I got married at a very young age, and my husband was very young, too. And he went into the navy. He'd come home drinking after gambling. And, over a period of time, this became a more frequent thing with him.

The kids and I were having some wonderful healings through my study of Christian Science. And this, I think, was really a threat to him, because in looking back on it now, I think he probably felt that he was losing some control here. I was turning to God and depending more on God and less on my husband for everything.

Our household was very tense. And his temper was very volatile, so that you hardly wanted to breathe around him. It was a frightening thing, because you just didn't know when he was going to lose control and become physically abusive. He was mostly abusive to me more than to the kids. And any type of self-defense that I might express—either verbally or in any other way—would bring out the threat that he was going to be kill me, that he was going to kill us. This happened a lot of times. And I was very scared.

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