From a young age of memories of my dads beating on my mom are horrifying. My first memory that I can think of was in Council, Idaho. I was very, very young, maybe 1st or 2nd grade. Debbie my baby sister is 4 years younger than I. There's a motel by the last corner of this tiny town and this is where it all happened.
I don't recall what lead up to this, I wish that this whole thing was block out but it's not. No memory of what started this horrible beating.
What I remember is dad beating on my mom somehow it ended up in the tiny bathroom. Debbie and I were sleeping on roll away beds. When it started I grabbed Debbie and under the roll away we went. I tried so hard to hide Debbie's eyes and there was no way that I could cover her ears too. I don't know what she remembers.
When the fight made it to the bathroom all hell broke loose. The bathroom sink was just a single sink, white! This I will never forget. There was no counter like sinks have now a days, it was only attached to the wall. Dad started slamming moms face on this sink. I watch in horror as more blood started covering the white sink. The sink started to come off the wall and it was no longer white but red from my mama's blood.
I remember someone pounding on the door. Everything stopped. I remember a lady tending to my mom. Some man too. Last thing that I can remember now is of me cleaning up the blood off this sink as it laid on the FLOOR, bawling and this lady sitting on the bed cleaning up mom, as mom cried and Debbie sitting on her lap, crying too. I don't know what happened to dad...did he go to jail...I don't know. But that wasn't the end of many years of horror.
Another beating I remember of horror was in Tamarack, Idaho. My dad was a logger. We was living in a tiny, tiny trailer. You had to walk through a tiny bed room with bunk beds on one side and through the tiny bathroom to get to the back bedroom that only fit a full size bed. I remember a door that lead outside in this room. The living room and kitchen was all one room. I know this is where we moved to from Council, Idaho. I was in the 2nd grade.
Mom had bought a Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass record album this day. Dad came home and Debbie and I was a sleep in their bed. Why? I don't know. But a argument started because of this record. Apparently dad hated Herb Albert. What I remember next was mom laying in this tiny hallway that went through our room and the bathroom on her back, NAKED! Dad was still fully dressed with his steal toed boots and kicking mom in the crotch with these boots. The next thing that I can remember is mom, Debbie and I are in the car heading to Walla Walla, Washington to live with my Grandpa Joe (my moms step dad, my moms mom had already passed away). My mom later took as all back to be with dad again. Years later she told me why and I will tell you that at the end of my story. I have talked to Debbie after dad had died about this night, she remembers this beating and she remembers her and I trying to pull dad off of mom. This I don't remember how weird is that? Now on to the next horror story.
We had moved to Weippe, Idaho. Every summer we would go to White Bird, Idaho. This is where we were living when I was born, but I was born in Grangeville where the nearest hospital was. We always stayed at Jim and Jo Killgore's in White Bird. Dad was always helping Jim in the orchards. Jim and Jo had a daughter Camille, who I became very close to.
One weekend while we were there. Dad and mom had gone in to White Bird apparently they were drinking. They had got into another major fight. Dad decided he was taking mom home back to Weippe leaving my sister and I at Killgore's. Camille, Debbie and I always slept out on the second floor open porch (like a balcony) that wrapped around the whole house. Very, very old house, but neat how it was built. We were sound asleep when a police car had pulled into the drive way. It was 3:00 a.m. Us girls watch from the balcony wondering what was going on. The officer went to the passenger's side of the car, we realized the lady in the car was my mom. Her clothes were a mess and dirty and torn some. She had scratches on her face and arms. By the time they got to the door Jim and Jo and us girls met them at the front door. Mom was crying and I already knew my dad had done this.
The officer was telling Jim and Jo about a couple that was going up (at the time it was the old White Bird Grade, lots of switch back turns and nothing to stop you from going straight down the side).(Now it is a 7% grade.) behind my parents pickup truck. They saw my mom fall out of the truck and over the side of the mountain. This couple went to the Police in Grangeville and told them what they saw. They also said the truck kept on going not stopping. They weren't sure if the lady was pushed or if she jumped. She didn't jump I can tell you that...I know she didn't!
They followed the couple to where this had happened, they yelled for her, they didn't know her name. She was unconscious. So at this point they wasn't sure if she was still there somewhere but the didn't stop looking. They called for more to come and with flash lights and flood lights, they started combing the hillside. This was dangerous because there are a lot of rattle snakes in this area. After a couple of hours they found her and they had an ambulance there and she refused to take it to Grangeville. She wanted to go to White Bird, where her little girls were at. So the officer brought her to Jim and Jo's. Dad never showed up here, he kept on going to Weippe.
Years later after mom finally had enough, I was 16 years old at this time. She devoriced dad and got the hell out of there. I aked her before she died...Why? Did
she stayed with dad all those years and to my surpize she told me "FOR YOU GIRLS!" So we would grow up with both parents. I will never do this to my children. There is a very thin line between LOVE and HATE! I hated my dad so, so bad but I loved him too. Guess I have never got over all this and I probably never will.
Please if you have a spouse that is this way too,
please get out FOR THE KIDS!!!!!!
