Memories Of a Lifetime

            

            I remember the day that my mom left my dad he had been drinking a lot that weekend. Then that evening dad started with the verbal abuse, then things started to get heated, and all I remember to this day was that mom got a knife from somewhere. She was fighting back for the first time that was the last fight, the last time my Dad hit my Mom. Mom had reached her breaking point and people say that everybody has one. Mom and us children left that same night with only the clothes on our back. However, my Dad could not believe that mom had actually left him. I know this shocked him. Dad did not think that mom had anywhere to go.

             Mom had finally gotten enough strength to walk away from a relationship that had gotten worse down through the years. Mom and all of us went to stay with her aunt and uncle that she had lived with before she met my dad. This was the aunt she could not wait to get away from. The grass sometimes looks greener on the other side but that is not always the case. Mom now was finally in control of her life. Even though she did not know how she could provide for four growing children. The next day mom’s aunt talked to the storeowner about the apartment, he had across the street.

             The storeowner decided to let my mother and us have the apartment. It was a tiny three-room apartment on third floor on 6^th Street. It was directly across the street from our aunt and uncle. The next day, Mom had to go and apply for Public Assistance. She did not have a job or any money. She had never worked before and never had to worry about paying bills. Now mom had all the responsibility of providing for us. My dad would not give mom any money to help support us. He turned very bitter against her after she left him.