
(Disclaimer: Some names have been changed to protect their privacy. Some information may be disturbing for some readers. Read at your discretion. 18+)
In 2023 I was living with a man, whom I nicknamed Rosie, in Quebec, Canada. Rosie is a born Canadian with Haitian culture and heritage. Hatian Canadian I believe is what his nationality would be referred to as? I was born in England and immigrated to Canada when I was two and a half years old. I guess I would be considered English Canadian?
We were in a cute two bedroom apartment with his two children who were eleven and twelve at the time. I loved that man, or at least I thought I did. I didn’t know when I met him that he lied on his dating profile. I was under the impression he worked in finance and lived in Fredericton, New Brunswick, where I lived. It wasn’t until our first initial date in person, near the end of October, 2014, when he corrected his purposeful misleading. Before then, we were chatting on the dating app, sharing our day’s events, and doing a little flirting. He clarified his status by telling me the truth on our first in-person date.
Rosie was a soldier in the Canadian Armed Forces. He was living near the base in Oromocto, and dabbled in some form of investing. Rosie’s residential location didn’t bother me so much. I too had a car back then. I could drive to see him if need be. What took me back for a moment was his profession. Had he of written on his dating profile that he was in the military I wouldn’t have entertained him. Reason being, when I was around nine or ten years old, I told a friend that I would never be with someone who worked in the military, or who was younger than me. At that time, I had no real reason for saying that. Today, I sure do know the reason.
Rosie is both a soldier and younger than me by a little over four years. I must also take accountability as well. Rosie may have been secretive and misleading. I also didn’t ask him many questions about his professional nor private life on that first date. I chose to place his discrepancy aside. Our conversation was based more around what we like to do, what we are wanting in a partner, the food we were eating, and the local area. I was also intriguingly drawn in by a familiar knowing within me that there was going to be more to us than a simple couple of dates. It was an internal pull which aided in my ability to ignore his true character.
Looking back, I made it incredibly easy for Rosie to hide his true self. I didn’t pry so he didn’t have to lie. On one occasion back when I first met him, I did pry. It was another date a few weeks later, at the same location. When we left the pub we were in his parked car for a moment smoking a cigarette before I walked home that night. I had a vision in my mind of him wearing a wedding ring. I asked if he was married by posing the question like this, “I am seeing you with a wedding ring on your finger inside my head. Are you married?” We had sex by then so it was extremely important for me to know. It’s a moral thing. I had to ask.
Rosie had already been made familiar that I have a beautiful habit of knowing things without people telling me. It may take me a bit of time to solve the puzzle in my head with all the symbolism. Nonetheless, I do end up putting the pieces of the scrambled puzzle together. The truth always comes out.
Rosie’s response to me was “I was engaged once. It didn’t work out.” My response “oh, okay. It could be that?, or, you are likely to be married some day in the future.” I left it like that. Rosie likely took an internal sigh of relief because he was engaged to be married when I had asked him. He was hiding that fact. I ignored the ugly truth and replaced it with a fantasy of love. Even when a person lies, they are still showing you the truth within their character. The truth is always available when you are willing to see it. I wasn’t willing to see it back then.
Today, one of the questions I plan to ask on a first date is “what have you learned about yourself from your previous relationships?” The answer to that question would tell me all I would need to know about a person’s character. Posing that question can save a hell of a lot of valuable energy and time.
Rather than judge them for their past, I believe it is best to judge a person based on what they have learned from their past. In particular, themselves. Lesson most definitely learned.
I didn’t like the idea of being on a dating site after my divorce from my second husband, Bill. Let alone meet a liar right out of the starting gate. Yet, I did. I had met a few men on that dating site before meeting Rosie. As well as a couple of short lived conversations and light dating with a couple others after I first met him. Rosie was different. I knew from the first time meeting him in 2014 at the local pub that there was more to us than a simple meet and greet. His energy seemed familiar to me. It was as if I knew him. That first knowing experience I had internally also occured with Bill, and my first husband, Albert. I fell for Rosie fast and hard even though I didn’t, and still don’t truly know him, eleven years later.
My world came crashing down when I found a box of condoms in his storage unit one lonely afternoon, almost nine years later, in 2023. We were living together in a small town on the south shore of Montreal for a little over a year at that point. I moved from New Brunswick to Quebec to see a Neurologist for muscle spasms and cramps I kept on experiencing. Having a specialist near where Rosie lived made it easier to go to the appointments. With that, Rosie agreed to move me into his place. I didn’t realize at the time that Rosie had other intentions than mine when it came to me moving in with him.
Rosie was at work when I saw his box of condoms. I was organizing his apartment and took some items down three flights of stairs to his designated storage unit. Out of site out of mind sort of thing. I had already crammed a few things as best I could in there already. I was bringing the last few items down. I opened the door to the unit. I then reached up to put something on top of the huge pile of stuff on my left. It was at that moment, when the condoms came crashing to the floor at my feet. It kind of felt like a divine intervention. The timing was impeccable. I’ve experienced a number of those in my life.
Two particular times come to mind. One when I was nine years old. I was swiftly guided by a voice in spirit on when to get out of a horrendous situation with a pedophile. Whilst I was in the hands of this man, who was about to penetrate me from behind, I heard a loving, stern woman’s voice say “you must get out of here dear.” No sooner did I hear that voice, the man let go of me for a split second. Giving me just enough time to break free from him, hop on my bike, and bolt out of there.
The voice, which sounds a lot like me today, saved me. Not necessarily from traumatic pain. It was from potentially losing my virginity in a most gruesome way, or worse, my life. I hadn’t told anyone about that experience until my daughters became adults.
I was walking home from the local mall with my brother when a tall slender man approached us. “Hey there. Can you guys help me? I am trying to find the indoor tennis courts. My daughter lost her bracelet and necklace there. I need to find them for her. She is devastated. You’d be her hero. I can pay you five dollars each for helping me?”. My brother said “I don’t know. We’d have to ask our mum first.” Me being someone who needed to prove I am worthy of being proud of, said, “I can help.” Being a hero to another little girl really got my ego excited. Craig interjected again and said, “we gotta go home and ask.” The man then said, “I can wait for you. How about you go ask your mom. If she says yes, meet me in the school playground”. He looked over to his right and motioned his head towards my school, Christie Public Elementary School. That made me think of all the bullying I was getting at that school.
I was bullied everyday of my school years from grade four right up to and including grade ten. The thought of those school bullies was enough for me to reinforce that I had to prove myself. Craig and I agreed to meet up if our mum said yes. We then proceeded on our walk home.
During the ten to fifteen minutes walk home I asked my brother if he was going to help. He said no, he wasn’t interested. Today as I look back, I know his intuition was talking loud and clear. His intuition was telling him that that man was a predator. Mine on the other hand was clouded at best. Once my ego took over, spiritual morality and truth went out the window.
Once Craig and I arrived home I asked my mother if I could help the Necklace man. My mum was busy cooking super. When my mum was cooking, she cooked meals that required her full attention. I knew that, so asking her when she was distracted was the plan that I had come up with whilst I was walking home with my brother. I figured I had more of an eighty percent chance of it being a yes. Even a nine year old can be manipulative to get what they want. I was no exception at that moment.
“Yes you can go. Provided it is within our housing area and with other people”. I lied and said, “yes mum, it is.” “Be back in an hour. Dinner will be ready” was the words coming out of my mother’s mouth as I had my second foot already out the front door. “Okay mum!” I replied, in a quick dismissive manner. I then closed the door behind me without a second thought.
I hopped on my bike and headed for the school. Whilst riding, I wasn’t paying attention to the ever growing knot in my stomach. I was focused on being a hero. As well as the five dollars promised. Five dollars was a lot of money for a nine year old in 1983. I had big plans with that money. When I arrived at the school Necklace man was sitting on the play structure. When he saw me he stood up, smiled, and said “ah you came. Thank goodness. I wasn’t sure if you would. Where’s your brother?”. “He didn’t want to come. I’m sorry.” I responded in a respectful manner.
I was usually respectful to others except my mother, brother sometimes, and my not so friendly school teachers. With them, I talked back when I truly saw them in the wrong. Disrespect me without warrant and you would get a mirrored response back, no doubt.
The stranger and I walked through the woods on the trail behind my school. We were isolated and headed towards the indoor tennis courts. Whilst we walked, this perfect stranger explained to me that he had to get back to his daughter. It was her birthday. He was out without her because he had bought her a present and didn’t want her with him when he bought it. The man then lifted up a shopping bag in front of me. There looked to be an article of clothing in it. It made sense to me. It answered the question of where his daughter was that ran in the back of my mind. I didn’t want to ask him where she was because I didn’t want to be rude. I didn’t talk as much to people I didn’t know that well. I was more shy than I was outgoing.
When we reached the tennis courts the stranger escorted me around to the back of the building. In the back there was a large grassy area with a tall embankment that lead up to the highway quite a ways up from where we were. The cars driving past on the highway would not have been able to see us. The tennis courts were also closed at that time.
As soon as I became aware of the tennis courts being closed, a flutter appeared in my stomach to which I ignored. Being with that man was starting to feel off. I think he could see it on my face because no sooner did I feel that new sensation in my belly, he worriedly said, “Oh, I do hope we can find them. Her birthday will be ruined if I can’t find them. How about you look over there whilst I stay over here and look?”, motioning his head in two different directions. I said, “okay”, with a smile and then headed over to the middle area at the back of the building. Necklace man stayed on the edge of the open grassy area where we first turned the corner of the building to come into the back.
After about five minutes or so with my head down scanning the grass, and us talking about the sports I liked to play, the man shouted over to me “found the necklace!” He held it up high with a proud grin. I was happy for him and bummed at the same time. I wanted to be the hero. I was even more determined to find the bracelet.
About another two minutes or so went by. Again Necklace man proclaimed, “there’s the bracelet!”. The man bent down and picked something up from the ground. Yep, it was a bracelet. He got to find both. I felt defeated. I walked over to him and explained how happy I was that he found them and that his daughter would have a wonderful birthday afterall. Inside I was thinking, “so much for being a hero”.
‘Necklace’ man had another request for my services. “Speaking of my daughter’s birthday, I don’t suppose you would be willing to try on this skirt for me, would you? I bought it for my daughter and I am not sure if it will fit. You and her look to be about the same size. It would help me to know if I have to take it back to exchange it for a different size.”
I was definitely uncomfortable with that idea. For two reasons. My tummy was talking, and I was a tomboy back then. I didn’t like putting on skirts. I gave a look of uncertainty so he upped his ante. “I can give you an extra five dollars. I was going to give it to your brother anyways. Since he’s not here, you could have it. You can change over there in the tall grass”. Necklace man then pointed his finger straight behind me to point out a relatively private spot to change. “I will look away to give you privacy”, he reassured.
I hummed and hawed for a second or two, which made him say “please. It would really help me out a lot.” He knew what he was doing. He was pulling at my heartstrings. “Okay. I guess I could.” With that, I accepted the skirt and made my way to the overgrown lawn.
Everything inside me was saying not to do it. I did it anyways. Ten whole dollars was hard to pass up. Whilst I was changing, I kept my eye on him to make certain he wasn’t going to turn around. He didn’t. When I had the skirt on, I told him I had the skirt on, and that he could turn around. “Okay, you can look now”.
The skirt fit me perfectly. You’d almost think it was planned. I still didn’t care for the skirt but that wasn’t for me to say. “Oh that is a perfect fit. Excellent. She’s going to love it.” He said with excitement. “Great. Can I change back now?” was what I said next in a monotonous tone, and all I wanted to do. I was getting scared.
The man looked at me with wide eyes and said “wanna play a sport first? I can see you like sports with that baseball hat your wearing. It’s fun. You’ll like it.” My nerves were really starting to talk now. “I really should be going home. My dinner will be ready soon.” “Didn’t you say you had an hour? It’s only been about thirty minutes. You’ve got lots of time with having a bike. Don’t worry”, was his rebuttal. I responded with “what is the game?”. “It’s called Yoga”, he said.
“Here, let me show you. You stand here”. ‘Necklace man’ proceeded to grab my shoulders and turned me to face away from him. He directed me to go down on my hands and knees. I followed his instructions. Then he explained that part of the game required flexibility. As he explained, he spread my legs apart, parted my panties, and then touched my vagina forcibly. It hurt. It was at that moment I heard a woman’s voice say “you must get out of here dear”.
It was right when he touched my vagina that my mind brought me back to when I was a toddler. It was like going through a time portal. One minute I felt my panties snap, and the next, back to being three or four years old laying half naked on some teenager’s lap. A teenager did something similar to me back then when he was babysitting me as well.
‘Necklace man’ had me from behind. He let go of me for a moment to unzip his pants. He was pulling his penis out as I turned around whilst also getting up. It was my moment of opportunity to kick him, rush to my bike, hop on, and ride away like a bat out of hell.
I ignored the little droplets of blood running down one of my legs. I was in shock. I didn’t tell anyone about that experience. When I got home I ran upstairs, changed, and got rid of the skirt. Then was back down to dinner on time. I acted like normal, in a foul mood. My parents didn’t ask me any questions. I didn’t offer any information. No one in fact has known this much detail until now. This is the first time I am giving this much detail to anyone. As it stands right now, in this moment, you, reading this, know more than my own family had ever known.
The second time was when I was sixteen. I jumped into fridged cold water at 01:00 in the morning by myself. Doing that gave me a horrible shock. Instigating a horrific, terrifying seizure moments after getting out of the water. I wasn’t feeling well. I decided to go for a swim. I wasn’t the type to tip-toe in. I was the “fuck it” and dive right in kinda girl. That’s exactly what I did. Jumped right into the lake without any thoughts towards the potential condition of the freezing cold water. Nor did I consider the cold water’s potential effect on my body.
I had what felt like an electric shock run straight through my chest. It took my breath away. I had heard the same woman’s voice in that moment say “you must get out of the water dear.” Since I had heard her voice the one time before with the necklace man, I didn’t question the voice, nor where it came from. I got out of the water, walked up to the cabin I was staying at with friends, and had a full body seizure, right there in the front doorway. Had I have not listened to that voice I would have surely drowned. I would have had a seizure in the water.
That beautiful, loving voice, saved my life once again. I was the only one out there in the dark. Down a large winding set of wooden stairs, and out past the dock. No one would have seen me, nor heard me. My boyfriend at the time had suggested I go jump in the cold lake after I had told him I was uncomfortably hot, making it difficult to breath. When the ambulance arrived, my heart rate was something like 200 over something else, 90 I believe. According to my boyfriend who explained what happened, once I came to at the hospital that is. My heart rate must have been fairly high I guess. I had another seizure on the gurney and was quickly rushed to the hospital by ambulance on a code blue situation. I have no recollection of that. Fun times.
That was a bit of a detour down memory lane. My apologies. It’s time to focus back on what brought me to my knees, Rosie.
Before Rosie and I started living together we were either seeing each other where I lived, or we were communicating long distance. I knew he used some of those condoms that fell at my feet with someone else. He wasn’t using them with me. We stopped using condoms about two months into our secret affair, which I didn’t know was a secret, nor that it was an affair at the time we met. I had no idea he was engaged to be married with two young children under the age of two in another city, a little over an hour away.
When Rosie and I met, he was a soldier working out of a nearby base with his family in a different city. He decided to rent a room closer to the base and go home to his family on the weekends. After I found out about his family, which was about six months into our relationship, he told me they were not together. That he lived in Oromocto, New Brunswick, and only went to Moncton, New Brunswick to see his kids on the weekends. I chose to believe him. I was desperate to be loved. I had to believe I was special to him. Even though I heard countless other people in this world give me the message that I would only ever equate to being Rosie’s mistress, and that he would say anything to keep me around as a side piece. They were all correct. My stubborn ass had to find that out the hard way. The painful way. The gut wrenching, heart stomping, mind numbing, only pain exists in this world, way.
Oh what we do as humans to prove love either exists or doesn’t. Everything revolves around love. Even the absence of love is focusing on its perceived non-existence. Which is painful. The pain is still a result of focusing on love. Aggression is love being expressed through pain. Desperation is grasping for someone to love us to prove we are loveable. It’s still love. Granted a distorted kind of love. That’s the love I experienced with Rosie. A desperate “why can’t you love me?” sort of love, and he knew it.
That rather large box of condoms fell as soon as I moved one item from the top left side. They were tucked away in a convenient spot for him to reach anytime he left the apartment. If he wasn’t using them during that time they would have been dried up and wrinkled, or at the very least, hidden deep within a box of items to be looked through some day in the far off future. Rosie was a slight hoarder afterall. They wouldn’t have been in anyone’s thoughts before the bloody expiration date for Pete’s sake. Not right at the entrance of the storage unit for him to reach anytime his little meat stick wanted to stand at attention.
I looked at the dates on the box of condoms for when they were made and when they expired. He bought them in 2017, long after we met. They expired in the year 2024. A year after I had found them. At least he chose different colored ones. Shows he does have a fun side. I guess. This also means he was taking advantage of those condoms for quite some time. How many freaking times and how many women!? That thought flashed through my mind. I almost vomited from the thought. Rosie’s explanation to his lack of forethought in hiding them better was, “they are old. I didn’t even know they were there. Condom expiration dates work differently. You are letting your mind believe we are in the same relationship as someone else’s. We are not in the same relationship. You need your helmet on again to save you from your impulsive actions.” Deflection and gaslighting at its finest.
Rosie was a pro at deflection and gaslighting. One important lesson I came to learn was, Rosie underestimated my intelligence. At one time, anyone underestimating my intelligence would piss me off. Now I see it as a quiet superpower. Sometimes it’s best to play a fool to fool a fool. With that, I bowed out of the argument and went inside myself to get to the bottom of it. I had to think about what he said about those condoms. Alongside all our time apart. And how two particular women I became aware of, played potential roles in everything.
The first time I had gone to Quebec I had gone to help is elderly mother take care of his son. Whilst Rosie was away on a military training program to level up his career back in New Brunswick, in 2020. The training started in February and ran until sometime in April. I can’t remember the exact dates. I do remember that his training back in New Brunswick started at the beginning of February that same year. I arrived at Rosie’s place near the end of January. Rosie and I both thought it best I arrived a bit earlier so that his mother, Jean, his seven year old son, and I could get to know each other and bond. Rosie only had custody of his son at that time. Shortly after I had arrived, and before he had to leave for his training in New Brunswick to become a WO (Warrant Officer), he was on his phone with the mother of his babies. Whilst they were talking they got into an argument. Accusations between the two of them were flying as per usual. After the phone call Rosie wanted to show me some of her nasty text messages. He didn’t think about the message where she refers to his girlfriend, Wendy, alongside myself. I confronted him right there on the spot. Now he has two women pissed at him. His ex Gemma, and me. Well I wasn’t really angry so much as I was confused with a sunken heart in that moment. When I asked him who Wendy was, his response was, “she’s a friend of the family”. He explained that Wendy’s mom knows his mom and they had grown up together. He looked me square in the eyes, without budging, nor blinking, when he explained it. He also stared straight at me when he answered no to the question, are you cheating on me? Because of his seriousness, and my desperate need to be saved by love, I chose to naively believe him. I even said “I choose to believe you”.
I didn’t have the education to know when someone starred you down, doesn’t blink, and makes little hand gestures, and head movements, is someone who is focused on a delicate way to get away with something awful. I certainly know that today. That’s power for me from this experience. Even if it was messed up.
I chose to let Rosie’s deflections and gaslighting get the better of me. I chose once again to reluctantly believe him from then, until after I found out he was sleeping with multiple women at the same time. I was lost attempting to figure out if my memory was serving me correctly, or if what Rosie was saying was true.
I found out much more when I channeled a divine entity right in front of him one time. The voice that came out of me corrected Rosie by reminding him he had several women, not just Wendy and another woman named Carla. The voice pressured him to be honest. He chose to sheepishly admit to four women throughout the course of our twisted relationship. The voice, whom was not me, then asked if that was his final answer. As if to say, “we are giving you an opportunity to repent. Do you?” He stuck to his version of the truth. He stood by there only being four.
Since being here with my daughter today, I have come to learn there were upwards of eighteen to twenty. I knew there was such a thing as 18+. I didn’t know Rosie took having 18+ as a literal goal for himself. That’s two affairs a year over the course of almost ten years, isn’t it? Damn, that takes some serious creative thinking and determination. The channeling event when I learned of the four women, took place a little over three months after the condom incident. In a three star motel room back in New Brunswick. I learned through that voice that he in fact had multiple flings with several women, not just the four women he admitted to having sex with at that time.
From the moment I learned of Wendy, I became aware of my inner voice giving me little pokes and prods. “Hey. Are you truly trusting your intuition when it comes to Rosie? What feeling do you get when you hear the name Wendy? Does it sit right? Is he really telling you the truth? I know you said you would never invade his privacy, and that you would leave that between him and his God, are you certain refraining from doing that is healthy for you?”. All those thoughts were trumped by one single message I kept giving myself which was, “he wouldn’t cheat on me. Look how much I do for him. He must see my worth? He loves me, right? I’m the complete opposite to his ex”
I refused to believe that all my efforts were for nothing as it relates to experiencing authentic true love. I had to prove that line of thinking, so I stayed for a bit longer after Gemma’s perfectly timed text with Wendy’s name appearing before me. I was supposed to leave for New Brunswick in April of that year, after Rosie’s training was completed. I left in March because I was having difficulty getting along with his french, and creole speaking mother, and was still secretly reeling over the idea of a Wendy.
The week before I found the condoms I overheard him talking with someone in the bathroom. The door was closed. With that said, you can always tell when a man is talking to a woman he likes. His voice goes deeper, sexier, and more deliberate. My heart sank when I heard his voice. I couldn’t exactly make out what he was saying. Nonetheless, I knew instantly that he was talking to a woman. “Was it Wendy, or was it Carla?” I thought. That moment flashed a memory of when I found his shaved pubic hair in the toilet the weekend before the bathroom phone call. He forgot to flush them down the toilet that Friday before going away for the weekend. That memory was fresh in my mind. I didn’t tell him I found it. I was definitely thinking about it.
I also instantly remembered a woman named Carla calling him. He was so friendly with her that he labeled her number with her name. When I asked him about her, he said she was someone needing his help with her domestic life. Seriously? She needed his help? I even said that. Probably in that sarcastic way too. He then explained further that he knew someone who could help her. He was the liasson between the two. “Legal stuff can be ugly as you know.” He even had the nerve to come up with that lie off the cuff whilst his mother was sitting in the same room with us. She may not understand english too well, he still knew what he was doing. He was being shady in front of his own mom. I quietly coward inside myself. I didn’t fully believe him. What could I do? The only proof I had was a phone call.
I knew I had to develop an escape plan after seeing those condoms. I knew we were over. I say an escape plan, and a silent one at that, because that man scared the shit out of me when he got angry. His dark brown eyes would become intense with his furled eyebrows. He would clench his jaw and then stare straight into my soul. Then he would deflect blame or gas light me into thinking I was wrong. He was pissed that I went for a walk after finding the condoms. I left the box in the middle of his queen size bed. With four of the condoms laid out individually. One for each colour. Like a symbol of a colorful and flourishing sex life. They were his lucky charms. What pissed him off was that his son saw them. With his ability to lie at the drop of a hat, I am quite certain he fluffed off the experience for his son by coming up with some off the cuff excuse.
That same evening when I found out he was cheating, we got into a big fight. We were in Rosie’s bedroom while his son and daughter were in the living room. He was furious that I left the condoms out. He was furious that I was making a scene raising my voice in the bedroom. He didn’t want his children overhearing. I could respect that so I decided to go for a long walk to decompress. I have a difficult time being in aggressive energy for too long. It scares me.
On my walk that night in the frigid Canadian March winter, I was pissed, shattered, heartbroken, and lost in my thoughts. I was determined to do the right thing. I had to fix my life. I started thinking about the fact that I wasn’t working when I was living with him. I don’t speak french. Which is the primary language spoken in Montreal, Quebec. There is english there too. With that said, the province is predominently a french speaking province. The language barrier coupled with some physical restraints made it a real challenge to work there. Instead of working outside the home, I helped Rosie inside the home with parenting his children, running errands for him, and I wrote most of his correspondence in his work, legal, and family services battles. I was a non-paid private servant who was being held on a false promise of love. Ew what a thought. It’s still true. That’s when I realized I was a desperate people pleaser. I had to figure that shit out.
On that evening brisk walk, I thought about where I was at in my life. “What the fuck am I doing? Why did I stay with someone who cheated on his fiance with me? What would make me think I would be any different? What am I trying to prove, that I am not a child called “It”?” After about forty-five minutes of walking in the cold I developed severe cramps in my calf, feet and toes.
My body use to cramp at the onset of any chill or over exertion. Rosie knew that. He had to rescue me from the outside cold on more than one occasion. He picked me up in his car, carried me up the stairwell, and into the apartment. Then he would place me into a bathtub full of steaming hot water. He knew that was what was needed to get the excruciating pain to subside. When the cramp kicked in, I headed back to the six unit apartment building Rosie and I lived in.
When I got to the front entrance, I buzzed to be let upstairs. They weren’t home. He took his kids to McDonald’s for dinner and locked me out. I know he locked me out because I went around back to use the sliding glass door entrance up on the third floor. It was locked. I had no way in and in agony with my toes curled every which way inside my boots. I went back to the front of the building and sat on the front steps. I hoped another tenant would arrive home. No such luck. I was in so much pain. I couldn’t really think straight. I called my daughter, Olivia. When Liv answered, I immediately spewed my guts to her. I told her about the condoms, about Wendy and Carla, about the eroneous lies he told, everything. I told her his temper scared the shit out of me and how he often found some way or another to make me the bad guy.
Liv was naturally upset. With that said, she was mostly focused on providing me with heat to help get rid of my physical pain. Liv gets cramp too so she knows the pain. She had also witnessed me in crippling states many times throughout her life. With that, she sent me a few dollars through an e-transfer so that I could go to the local coffee shop to warm up. I didn’t have two cents to my name. I still don’t presently either. That’s going to change. I am determined.
The coffee shop was about a twenty minutes walk from the apartment. It took me a little longer with the cramp. Liv stayed on the phone with me. Liv listened to me spew my guts whilst also coming up with a game plan to get me back to New Brunswick. After sitting with a warm coffee for about thirty minutes inside the coffee shop, I walked back to the apartment. It was nighttime by this point and much colder. On the walk back my feet went again. The pain was unbearable. Thank goodness Rosie and his kids were back home when I buzzed the second time.
Liv was able to secure a ride for me from her step-dad to come back to her. The long drive back to New Brunswick from Quebec with my ex husband was going to be awkward and interesting to say the least. That’s what I was thinking at the time anyway. I was desperate, and relieved by the solution. Driving with Bill was perfectly fine by me.
All I had to do was call Liv. She took care of the rest. I thank God for my daughter everyday. I would be living on the streets, God knows where, if I wasn’t blessed to have her in my life. I am determined to make something of myself so that I can bless her the way she so rightfully deserves. I swear she is an earth angel. Even if others in her life don’t see it. I certainly do. She has always had my back. She is still keeping a roof over my head to this day. All the while, earning a little over minimum wage to get us by.
Anyway, I digress. Those questions I asked myself on that cold wintery walk stayed with me from then on in. They sparked an inner journey. A rabbit hole that took me to a dark place with many doors to open and revisit. Why am I not loveable? was the biggest question for me at that time. Not realizing what I was actually asking was, “why don’t I love myself?”.
It starts with being a child who cried a lot. Supposedly I drove my mother nuts with my high demands for attention after my father left for Canada. My brother, mother, and I were still in England when she coined me “It”. My mother would brag to my friends when I was a teenager about her ordeal with me when I was a baby. She would crack jokes and say “when her father got home I would tell him to take it out and drown it. She would never stop crying.” That memory then jumped to her saying to me on several occasions “take a long walk off of a short pier”. That’s the same thing as saying “go kill yourself”.
A pattern started to emerge the deeper I went back into my mind. This rabbit hole is freaking painful. I had to venture down it. The reasons for my failed marriages, fake friendships, and constant need for outside validation came from somewhere. I had to venture into the labyrinth in my mind to uncover the patterns. There were so many doors to choose from. That’s exactly what I did from the moment of the condom revelation. I opened One door and revisited one painful memory at a time.










