It was a beautiful warm Sunday morning as I attempted to feed our son a piece of pound cake for breakfast when my ex—husband approached me and slapped me across my face and pulled my hair. He hit me so hard I fell to the floor, as I attempted to defend myself he was too strong and overpowered me. He kept hitting me in front of our son. I noticed after this incident my eye sight slowly started to change for the worse.

For eight years I endured verbal abuse, public humiliation, sexual and physical abuse. He also threaten to kill me with a gun and commit suicide. I was miserable in my marriage, until one painful afternoon ten years ago as I entered our apartment in Brooklyn, New York, I saw our son lying on our bed with his left arm broken. His father denied him medical attention which made me realize that I couldn’t continue living this way. My former spouse had pushed our son down the subway stairs breaking his arm. Adding insult to injury, he slapped him so hard that my poor son fell again to the ground and blamed him for causing himself the injury. That was the end of my ill marriage.

He never accepted full responsibility for his actions nor apologized. Inclusive he told my attorney that he was happy living under such conditions. He never saw his actions as a threat to his family. He show no remorse toward his son’s injury.

I couldn’t speak to anyone about my life because they were all his friends and my family members were also victims of domestic violence. We all feared for our lives.

I started to seek for help elsewhere and doors started to open and non profit organizations started to empower me with information and help.

My son and I are one of the millions who have survived to tell our story. We have chosen to forgive this individual but, the scars he left are very profound, with God’s help we have prevailed.

My Story: Nelida Torres