LIFE GOES ON AFTER RAPE ( part two )

Had a breather, so here's part two.

Despite the past, I met and married a gorgeous young man, with the biggest blue eyes I had ever seen.He was almost sixteen, I was just twenty one. My Dad didn't agree with it because of the age difference but we married anyway.

He was a Miner and we had two lovely Son's and six years of marriage before he left me for my " mates". During this time, we came through the Miner's strike of 1984-85. We even appeared in a BBC documentary "REAL LIVES". All about the strike and some of the families struggling through it.

To cut the story a little shorter, I moved back home to Sheffield to be near my family for support. I managed to get a privately rented house in Hillsborough. My sons were two and seven years old at this time.

The Landlord told me the house wasn't quite ready yet but that if I didn't mind him coming and going to carry out the finishing touches, we could move in straight away. So, we did.

After a few weeks living there, we settled in to a nice life and finally had somewhere to call home. It beats sleeping in my sister's attic and living at Mum's. I like to be self sufficient, after all, I have my pride.

Then, one day, I had just brought my oldest Son home from school when the Landlord turned up. This would be around 4.30 in the afternoon. He asked me to put the kettle on, so I did. The next thing I knew, he was behind me, putting his arms around my waist.My youngest Son was watching and I insisted that he left. He didn't leave but started to scoop me up in his arms to carry me upstairs. I obviously started to struggle but realised that BOTH my Sons were watching and I had to try to keep calm for their sakes.

He threw me down on the bed and the inevitable happened.All I remember doing was thinking to myself all the way through, that I had to make this look like a game. My eldest Son hid in a cupboard and my youngest Son saw the whole thing.

NO child should EVER have to witness that but mine did. Afterwards, the Landlord asked if we could still be friends, UNBELIEVABLE.

The Police advised me to do a moonlight flit, which I did, to a safe house in Doncaster. We lived there, in a bedsit, for seven months. We should have left the room all day and were only allowed in at four oclock. I managed to get the Landlady to agree to letting me do all the laundry and ironing, if she let us all stay in all day. My eldest was in school anyway and I hated walking round Doncaster in the snow with my youngest,he was only two.

Eventually, I declared war on life and went back to my Mum's with NO IDEA of what we would do. I did manage to get a house and we lived there for many years very happily.

I now am re married to a wonderful man, whom I love dearly and am looking forward to my eldest Son's forthcoming wedding next month.

Most of you know my youngest already. He is with a gorgeous young man himself and I now have an even bigger family, getting bigger all the time.

I can now look forward to being a Granny and know that NO MAN will EVER stop me from loving the life my Parents gave me from their love for each other.