All Around The World
It started with an anon thread on the website’s Off Topic forum. Lots of us post anon if something is wrong, particularly because many of us have become real life friends. It’s easier to give and get advice if you don’t know about extraneous facts.
She wanted to leave her husband, an emotionally abusive fucktard. He had locked her into their apartment while he went to work, had isolated her from all her friends and acquaintances, and had even taken over most of her communication with her family. Classic control issues.
She had finally reached the point where she could think about leaving. That’s such a big step, I can only applaud the woman’s bravery. But, as in many cases, he controlled the money. She had nothing to leave with.
People from all over the world helped out: Spain, Australia, Canada, Britain. We sent money to a paypal account and hoped she was brave enough to go through with it.
She waited til her husband went to work, and got the landlord to come over and let her out. She got over the border. She got to the airport.
She is now in the air on the way home, safe away from her abusive husband.
Courtesy of the kindness of strangers on the internet.
Some Stuff | Liz September 24, 2009
By Beth, September 24, 2009 @ 4:04 pm
I’m surprised that a controlling husband left her access to a computer and the internet. That’s a lot of people you’re able to communicate with, no?
By Arwen, September 24, 2009 @ 5:22 pm
That’s an awesome thing to be part of.
Also, Beth has exposed her Machiavellian side.
word ver: tamper Miriam. If I ever need a writing exercise, I have decided your posts + their word verification would almost always make a good inspiration.
By Liz, September 24, 2009 @ 9:07 pm
Exactly, Beth. There’s always a way. I don’t think he thought she’d be brave enough to ask for help.
It really is awesome, Arwen. And thanks for saying I’m good inspiration!
By Jean deCynique, September 24, 2009 @ 10:57 pm
Wow. That’s amazing. The skeptic in me hopes it’s 100% on the up and up (not for the abuse, obv. but for the $$$ and emotional time people have put in). More power to her. I just wonder why freak-o husband would allow internet access that he doesn’t oversee somehow. Or once he comes home to a breached compound, he won’t try to track her down via her computer?
Hope it all works out. Would backup all data and format her laptop (assuming it’s a laptop) and reinstall at the earliest convenience, just in case he did install something that transmits him tracking information at a third-party location. Seems crazy, but I’ve installed (for business) and detected (for hackishness) similar software myself.
I remember a certain ex-roommate who was all excited because his internet girlfriend was coming up to meet him that weekend, and then the day she was supposed to leave on her roadtrip, she was hurt and unable to make the trip. He didn’t hear from her for a while, and the one day got an email from her inviting him to check out her newly launched website.
And there she was, the real her, with her husband, and their new house, and kids, and none of it except her name had been true for the last year and a half.
ReCap: “original deputes”
By stephanie, September 25, 2009 @ 5:50 pm
Oh, wow. Seriously? Amazing. Awesome.
By Liz, September 26, 2009 @ 12:42 am
John, it was his computer. She wasn’t allowed to have her own and brought no technology but her phone (with the UK sim card she smuggled out without him knowing) from there. (Clearly he wasn’t very bright like that.)
If it was a hoax, which I do not think it was, it was still worthwhile. 200+ strangers across the world pulling together so that one woman in an untenable situation can get to a safe place still does credit to those 200+ people. We can’t be distant cynics all the time. Sometimes blind trust pays off – going both ways.
By John, September 26, 2009 @ 7:04 am
You’re totally right. For the horrible situations people end up stuck in due to their neighbors not taking action, it’s totally worth helping out with something like this every time. Sorry I had my “95% of what I read on the internet is bullshit” hat on. I think I read too much spam, it gets in the way of me seeing humanity sometimes.
Best of luck to your friend, hope she can start over somewhere happy, and I hope evil husband’s computer implodes in the next 10 days, taking all trace of her path with it.