this is part of me, but this not my story This morning, after fighting with my husband for the second day in a row about the news of my pregnancy, I called my parents to come pick up my daughter and myself for a visit. Just before dark my dad drove us back to my house. Finally, we reached the top of my winding mountain road. As we turned into the driveway, I saw my husband on the roof shoveling off the frozen snow. Pausing and watching him for a moment, still not wanting to leave the comfort of my dads truck, I said goodbye and walked into the house without my husband ever saying a word. After my daughter had fallen asleep, I slipped out of the bedroom to finish cleaning up the kitchen and watch a little television before I finally turned in for the night. Right away my husband started yelling at me. He was still upset about the baby I was going to have. After a few hours of fighting with my husband and being emotionally drained, I went to bed. A few hours later, I was awakened by a strange smell. Still not fully awake, I rolled over to see if my husband had fallen asleep with a cigarette still burning. To my surprise, my husband wasn’t there. I got out of bed, put on my robe and walked to the bedroom door. The smell was strong at this point and I knew it was smoke. Thinking it was probably just Joe starting the wood stove, I opened the bedroom door. When I opened the door my heart almost stopped and I had a sudden sense of fear and panic come over me. It wasn’t the wood stove but my house that was on fire. I stood frozen as I saw my living room engulfed in flames. There were balls of flames swirling up the walls and ceiling.It reminded me of a tornado but instead of swirling winds, it was fire. The fire was blinding and I could feel burning heat across my whole body. For a brief moment, I thought I had opened my bedroom door and entered the gates of hell. It was like a scene from a movie; but worse, because this was real. After what seemed like hours, though it was really only seconds later, I ran back into my bedroom slamming the door behind me. Still in a panicked state of shock, I went to the window trying to open it, but the nails my husband had placed years before still held strong. I grabbed something and tried breaking the window, but realized that it was no use. My husband had shoveled the snow in front of the window, leaving no escape. By this time, my daughter had awakened and was now screaming. I kept trying to tell her everything was going to be okay, even though I wasn’t sure. Knowing that my front door was just on the other side of my bedroom door, I grabbed my daughter and headed for the door. At this point my bedroom door was hot and burned my hands to touch it. Grabbing a piece of clothing, I used it to open the bedroom doorknob and then placed it over her face not wanting her to see what was happening. By the grace of God, I was able to feel the front door and get it to open with very little struggle. About this time, My husband appeared and yelled for me to place my daughter in our car and run for help. he was going back in the house to try to save the dogs and grab the car keys. I began running barefooted, half dressed and screaming for help all the way up the frozen mountain road. In the back of my mind, I kept thinking that our closest neighbor lived about a half mile away. Two loggers happened to be looking at a wooded lot not far from my house and heard my cries for help. They came to see what was going on. The two loggers drove to the burning house, that by this time, had flames shooting from the windows. The windows had blown out from the extreme heat, and part of the roof now had started falling in. My husband, still wrapped in a sheet, had grabbed my daughter from the car and was standing in the road when we reached the house. my husbandd, my daughter and I rode in the back of the truck. It was then that I noticed that he had visible burns from going back into the house. The men drove us about two miles to a local gas station, and they called for help. The people that owned the store happened to be friends of ours and they gave us clothes to put on while we waited for medical help to arrive. After being taken to the hospital, my husband was treated for second and third degree burns that covered much of his body. I was treated for frost bite on my feet and almost lost the baby because of the stress and the amount of smoke I breathed during the fire. Thankfully, my daughter was not hurt at all by the fire. The fire was ruled an accident from a candle being knocked over by one of our three dogs. Sadly, they all died in the fire. Two months later he told me that he had set the fire. He also said that he was sorry the dogs were the ones to die. He really wanted my daughter and me dead. I lived in fear with my husband for another year and a half before leaving him. I learned from this fire a lot of things. The first thing, was to be thankful that I had God’s angels watching over my children and me. The firemen said they didn’t know how we ever got out of that house alive. We should have all died that day. The second thing that I learned, was how great a gift life is. When given a second chance, only a fool doesn’t change his ways and show his gratitude toward God. The last thing I learned, was truly how sick and twisted my husband really was, His abuse really would stop at nothing. A person that tries to kill his wife and children, is the worst example of a human being and has no morals at all. I should have left him seven years earlier with the first act of abuse. Since I was able to free myself from husbands control, I have promised myself never to be with another man like him. I have also promised God and myself to free both my children from their father’s abuse.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Mar 2014 19:36:09 +0000
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