Thursday, August 23, 2018

Had to return 2006

We got back to Ireland after a horrible 17 plus hours journey from London by cab, tube, coach and ferry. I sent non-stop texts to my eldest and had very little money left after we sold what we could and gave the rest away. All I had left after fares etc was £45. I met an Irish bloke on the coach who said he'd been robbed.  I asked him how did he still have his passport then, he replied his mammy always told him to keep it in his pocket for safety.  I told him I was skint but I gave him £10.  I later saw him on the ferry downing pints, what a mug I am.

Eldest texted me that Dad had gone out to work for few hours (on a Saturday!) It turned out he was gone for 8 hours and got back at 7pm and went back out at 7.10pm to a BBQ at his new female friends house. My eldest was left home alone.

Me and my youngest had to wait two hours in Dublin after a long journey to get a coach so no sleep has been had by us both. Eldest was awake and texting me that Dad was now home.

At last we were in the nearest town to our old home. I left my youngest with the luggage and went off to find a cab. I'd run out of phone credit so couldn't reply to my eldests text of “call me quickly”

The taxi man was chatting away to us, I told him what I might be expecting at our destination and that it would not be a happy home coming. He told me “don't be worrying” When we got to the turning of the cottage lane way there was the husband in his car blocking the lane way and texting away to someone on his phone. I told the cabbie “drive on, drive on” and tried to slide down the foot well of his cab but he said “Oh no you don't, I'll sort him out if he tries anything” Husband looked up and recognition dawned with him and if looks could kill I would be stone dead, even tho he knew we were coming back for my eldest. He then realised that the cabbie had also seen him so he looked up again and smiled, then allowed us to pass but he reversed like a bat out of hell up towards the cottage too and jumped out of his car and into the house before us. My dog jumped out of his car window and ran to us, she had not forgotten us at all, bless her. He came out of the house just as the cab driver got our luggage out. The bollix must have been making sure he had secured all he wanted secured in the house. He said “I like your bag” a very weird thing to say to the wife he had not see for 9 months and he didn't utter a word to my youngest who he also hadn't seen in 9 months. He asked me “can I take the dog, I'm going up the mountains climbing” this from a man who could not walk the length of his own arse, nor ever walk the dog with me. I said “no, she decided herself when she jumped out of your car window” I asked him “How long had you planned to leave eldest home alone again today” he replied “not long” and off he went.

I entered the house and it was stinking and absolutely filthy, a manky, mucky disgrace, my feet were sticking to the filthy laminate that had not seen a wash in Christ knows how long. I said out loud, “how the hell could he live like this and expect eldest to do so too”

Eldest came out of his room all flustered asking me why I didn't text him back, he'd grown so much, at least a foot more. I grabbed him and cried. His bedroom looked like a bomb site, a cave, his windows were barricaded so that no light got thru, it was a dank less, dark pit in there. God almighty I could kill the ex. My eldest let me hug him but I noticed he was clutching my top and pulling it away from me and not hugging me back but he was making an effort. I put that down to me not being here for months. I told him I'm sorry that he had to learn the hard way and chose not to leave with us but I will never leave him again.

He and youngest sat down for a chat and they talked about computer games. I told them we could not live in filth so I put the water on to heat so I could get the filthy hell hole cleaned. We needed at least one room habitable.

My old bedroom door had three bolts on it, my sons helped me break them, no damage was done to the door but slight damage was done to the framework. I would caulk it later. I have never seen a mess like it in my life, a pigsty would have been be cleaner to live in. God knows where husband had been sleeping but it certainly wasn't here, the double bed was covered, every square inch of it with all his work crap including tools, boxes and estate agents brochures. I got black sacks and I ferreted thru all the rubbish and bagged it all up. I stripped the bed as the duvet and sheets were grey thru lack of washing and the smell was putrid. I went thru the bedside drawers, there was not a lot in them except receipts and biscuits and empty biscuit packets, there were not many clothes in the drawers, nor the wardrobe, so my eldest was correct after all and no one in L Social Services or the Garda who I rang and spoke to from London believed me or my eldest, they merely took that spiteful bastards words that he had not moved anything out, he told them he was not living anywhere else at all. There were numerous wine bottles that were now empty all over the bedroom and the kitchen. The bedroom fireplace was filthy with dried candle wax dripped everywhere.

I did as much cleaning as I could before almost dropping thru lack of sleep and nerves. The fridge was completely empty, the freezer had lots of out of date foods and all his disappearing acts were down to him “food shopping” apparently, that is what he told my eldest and the Garda, the bastard lying piece of scum. This is a disgrace. How could he have done this to his own son and why the fuck were the social work Dept not visiting the house themselves after I and another service contacted them, they would have seen immediately the way my eldest was left to live with that evil piece of scum, thank god I came back for him.

I took time out and made myself a cup of tea. I was sitting at the front of cottage, the boys were kicking a football around in the back garden, it was a roasting hot day and he then returned. He had sent me a text asking “do you want to go shopping” but I couldn't reply because I'd no phone credit. I told him “you look remarkably white for someone who's been mountain climbing for the past five hours” the only red part of him was his face because he blushed bright red. I said “so eldest would have been left abandoned like he was yesterday, like he was today and every other bloody day prior to this” he said “well I'm back now aren’t I” I told him “you are so bloody transparent with your lies that your sheer” He noticed the bedroom door was open and he went nuts “why the hell have you done that, you only had to ask and I would have unlocked it” I said “bullshit and anyway you were not here the past five hours to ask” he said “why can't you move into the boys bedroom with them” I asked him “would you move in there” he said “yes” I said “well off you go and move in there, problem solved” he was not a happy man, he started lifting things out of the house and putting them into the back of his car, he was moaning and bitching about me having touched his belongings “our belongings” I reminded him and “quite a lot of them are not here so where are they” I got ignored. He removed a long black lead from the phone and the attic, no doubt recordings made whenever me and eldest spoke, he even took the extension lead from the bedroom, the awful bastard.

I was still sitting with my tea in the sunshine when he came out roaring and shouting “you have stolen my fags” I said “I do not smoke that brand” he found his own lying on his car seat. I told him “off you trot now, you're as free as a bird, isn’t that what you wanted, isn’t that why you were a cruel bastard to us all, isn’t that why you made my life and the boy’s life and then my eldests life as miserable as sin” he looked at me and said “Free, I never wanted any of this, I never wanted a fucking psychopathic wife and psychopathic kids” I just laughed. He said he would be back for the rest of his belongings and he left. As a parting shot, he shouted at me “You are a psychopathic fucking bitch” I stayed where I was, finishing my cup of tea and replied “AND DON'T YOU EVER FORGET IT”

I hope I sounded calm and strong because I sure did not feel it. I was quaking inside. But I'm not the woman I was when I left him, I'm back to being the woman he first met, the strong, take no crap woman and I like that woman.

I finished cleaning the main bedroom and told my sons we would all sleep in that room together until I could get the other room cleaned out, it looked like we would need a skip to sort that room out. It was lovely having the three of us plus my dog in the bed, we talked till the early hours of the morning, I told my eldest when he was ready to talk I would listen and make sure that someone in authority knew all that his father did to him. We had a great nights sleep.

I rang the ex asking him when he would collect rest of his things because I was not having my eldest stressed out about him turning up unannounced whenever he liked. No reply.

Next morning, Monday, I got a text from him asking me if I needed anything. I used the land line phone to text him back saying no, because I'd already been to the local shop with my sons. In total I got five texts from him, one text asked for “your bank details because I need to support my children” which was bullshit because he knew I had no bank account in Ireland and was using a Building Society account in the UK that you cannot access in Ireland. It's all for show off course. I knew he has no intention of doing any such thing, he told me enough times “you will never, ever get anything from me” His last text said he was coming to the house with some shopping but that he'd broken down because his engine was overheating and he had no water. Not another word out of him till he turned up at midnight with bread, bacon and sausages, he said he had €100 for me and he wanted a receipt signed for it, he took the shampoo and his razor from the bathroom and spouted some lies about staying with the ex-husband of his female friend that he seemed to have forgotten only a couple of weeks ago that he told me that she and her husband had a very strong marriage and he felt he was the man's soul mate because they got on so well. He really should make sure he remembers all the lies he tells. He's an idiot.

I told him I wanted the family computer, he pointed to an empty case on the floor and said “there it is” eldest shouted “he's a liar, there's nothing in that case” I said “Oh just like the non-existent Chinese take away you once convinced me you had got and was on the floor” I told him he was “pathetic” he left but hovered at the front door and asked “are you definitely staying then” I said “ looks that way doesn't it, I was given no choice in the matter due to your abuse and abandonment of my eldest” he left sighing heavily.

Next day, Tuesday, I and youngest were walking back from the village and there were missed calls from him to my mobile phone. He then sent a text saying he was minutes away from the cottage asking if we needed anything. I still couldn't reply, I had no Irish Sim card and I couldn't answer international calls because I had no credit for them. Once home I texted him from the land line again requesting the family computer. He rang me, complaining about his car playing up and he needed to get it to the garage, he was complaining about where he was working locally. I told him I did not ask where he was or where he was going, all I wanted was the family computer for my sons, he started screaming “I am running around like a blue arsed flea and need the computer for work, it’s the tool of my trade” that pissed me off, he already had two laptops and no frigging engineer carries a large server from job to job. The family computer I contributed to it with my wages and I wanted it back for my sons. I reminded him he only removed it from cottage to punish my eldest, he told me he would speak to his solicitor, I said “you had better also tell your solicitor that I am an inch away from getting you arrested for cruelty to a minor” he said “that's bollix, it's not my fault eldest stayed at home and locked himself in his room all day and every day” I said “so it's not his fault you battered him, starved him yet hid biscuits in your sock drawer so he could not get any, it's not his fault that you left him alone in an empty house for full weekends chasing woman and he'd nothing to give him one bit of comfort” he said “eldest is lying” I said “he is not” and reminded him I rang B who he referred to as his “on line bitch” when I was in London in an attempt to track him down, silence from him, again I told him “I need the family computer for my sons so deliver us computer parts so my eldest can make us one” he told me “no that would take too long” I exploded “you drove 103 miles to fix B's computer and you are right now one mile away from the cottage and have access to all computer parts thru your work” he told me “go fuck yourself” and hung up.

I decided his cruelty is no longer going to be hidden and I rang his brother R and I told him all going on and someone needs to have a word with him. R told me he thinks “both husband and you have anger management problems” I told him “the pope would have anger management problems putting up with your brother and his cruel, vindictive and spiteful ways” then told him a few home truths about himself and his own domestic abuse towards his wife J and I said “I'm sorry it took me so long to realise you are all touched with the loony brush and if your mother could not send my youngest any Birthday or Christmas card like she did for my eldest then tell her not to bother at all any more because that's very cruel and spiteful to give to one child and not the other and husband kept any money she sent my eldest anyway and I slammed the phone down. That whole family are nuts, it's just a pity it took me so damn long to realise.

I had to ring him because I wanted to get the Child Benefit book so we had at least some money coming in for us, he told me he didn't have it, he said he cancelled it as soon as I got back. I know he's lying. I rang the Child Benefit people in Letterkenny and they told me that they had not heard anything from him at all. Lying swine that he is.

I rang an agency in County S and spoke to a lady. She was a good laugh, she said N had let her know I'd be calling once I got back to Ireland, she said I should be proud of myself for giving up my new life and coming back here for my son and that one day my eldest would be proud of me and would appreciate it, she said he will know which parent was there for him when he needed them and I've proved how strong I am and have shown great strength so far and it's good to talk to me because I'm so funny and great craic.

I've actually been begging him to send us money and coal or provide us with food, it's a bank holiday and we are freezing and starving, we have nothing, all the food in the freezer is out of date. How can he do this to his own children. He's had in three years, €490,000 go thru his bank accounts yet I'm left with nothing.

I contacted the agency again after spending the first week of August with nothing from him, if it was not for my old neighbour and wonderful friend C we would have been fucked, not even a TV do we have because he ignored all requests to fix it, the kids are demented. He knows we have nothing, no money, no food, no transport, he stopped all communication.

I heard a lorry outside the cottage at 10pm, we all crapped ourselves, it was a coal man dropping off two bags of coal, the swine of an ex could not even let me know it was being sent to the house.

A cab driver turned up at the house this afternoon, he had my child benefit that I had to beg the swine ex for, the same child benefit book he had told me he cancelled the last time I asked about it. It was the same cab driver who brought me and youngest back when we had to return, he said “yer man's not paid me and the fare is €20” he said “I was ready for punching yer man, talking about you something awful in front of everybody he is, I had to tell him to shut up because I didn't want to hear any more of his slagging of you, he's not very nice is he, I won't tell you all he's saying, it's not good tho”

I rang P the L Social worker to come out to house to meet us all. She tried to engage with my eldest whilst I was in London and arranging to get back for him, she'd offered to take him out for a Burger King but then told him she had to speak to his dad and he freaked out at that and no wonder, the man is as mad as a march hare, only my eldest would have suffered those consequences so he would not speak to P again. When she came out to see us at the cottage she was lovely but my eldest just sat with his back to her and would not talk to her or even look at her. I was so embarrassed by his behaviour. She told me she was now closing the file on eldest because I was back but she said the dad was insisting that she rang him and filled him in on all going on with us and he's claiming he's very worried about about his wife and youngest due to my eldests abuse of him! He was insisting Social Workers kept a track of us. I told her I find that all highly amusing because he's not in the least bit worried about us eating, about us having no heat, about our total isolation, he's ignoring all texts and calls. P said she will not be phoning him and will not be telling him anything because it's no longer his business as I'm now primary carer and eldest is living with me and if he wants to do anything about it she said he can take it to court.

I rang the agency to say thank you to them for helping my eldest whilst I was trying to get back for him. The woman I used to see at the local hotel when I was at my worst before I left had taken my email sent from London about my fears and worries for my eldest to C Social Work Dept. She was out when I rang but I spoke to a lady called P and she told me the swine had been on the phone to them complaining about my eldests violence and stated he wanted something done about it, he also wanted a report made because he claimed he was very concerned for the safety and well being of his wife and youngest child. I went nuts and told her the truth. I told her I'm an old client of theirs and the exact reason I was their client and the reasons I left, the reasons I was forced to leave by the ex and the reason my eldest stayed and the reason I had to freaking return. P advised I get an immediate Protection Order against him because “if he could fool us, he could fool anyone” She told me to contact Mary Kellegher, the head of social work in L re all that had gone on with him. I said I'd already been in touch with them from London but I rang her anyway at 4pm.

Mary Kellegher said “isn’t it brilliant that you came back for eldest” I told her everything that had gone on, she told me “make it your first priority to get away and keep yourselves safe, help will be available no matter where you go if you need it, your eldest needs to feel settled and safe first then perhaps he will confide in someone and make a detailed statement to the Garda but not to consider this until eldest is gone from where all his torment took place”

I told her everything that eldest had told me that had gone on, no food, no heat, removal of all his belongings, the same as the ex had done to me, the booze he bought eldest to take to school for his 14th birthday, the violence, the neglect, the verbal abuse, the cruelty, the lies he was telling my eldests school friends and now apparently to the agency who helped me before I left him.

He stopped giving us any money, he did not give us any more food or coal, he did not text or ring, all my calls went to voice mail, all my begging him for food or money by text went ignored, we were left to rot, once again. If it was not for C calling me up to find out how I was then coming to our rescue then visiting us with her husband and son then we would have been in real trouble. She took me to the village and filled a basket up and paid for it and told me that was for us because she had missed Xmas and Birthdays and I bawled my eyes out at her kindness. My friend who I had not seen for months cared more about my children's welfare than their own father, what a bastard he is. I will never forgive him and I will never forget what C did, she also had two separate bag for my sons which were full of juice, crisps and chocolate, my god the look on their faces at luxuries made me cry, they do not deserve this frigging misery he has left us with at all. I truly despise a man that could do this to his own kids. C told me that her husband said things might be difficult for us but he had never seen me look so good. C said that is a huge compliment from him. They will be my friends till the day I die.

A letter arrived from a solicitor I used in the past, she enclosed a letter from the swine, all containing spurious lies and claiming he did not know anything about my return and said I turned up out of the blue and threw him out, he claimed I've destroyed his property, that I am harassing him, that I'm threatening to throw out his belongings into the street. I rang her up and she agreed to work for me and be paid once the house was sold. I supplied her with every piece of documentation and information I had, of all his many bank accounts, of all missing funds, my hospital visit where he had me fly thru the air and injured my coccyx, all he had done to my eldest, the social workers in L involved. She then asked me “how are the children” and only then did I break down and cry and told her his balls should be on a plate for all he has done to them.

N from an agency that I contacted from London and P the Social Worker told me I had to see a Community Welfare Officer in C on S because we were entitled to an emergency payment. I didn't know we were entitled to anything because I'm married and had a working husband somewhere.
After getting the emergency payment I bought as much food and cupboard stuff as I could afford because I didn't know when another cent was coming our way. I just got back in the cottage when the phone rang, it was the solicitor, she said I had to get to her office immediately to collect court papers to take to C on S to apply for an emergency barring order. I told her I'd no transport and the nearest bus stop was over 2 miles away, she said “after everything you told me earlier and especially for eldests sake you need to get this emergency barring order and it has to be done tomorrow because the courts will be closed until September” I had no idea of the bus times so I decided to start walking, my youngest said he would go with me, eldest said he wouldn't go and told me we were mad to even attempt to walk in this heat so he'd stay at home. I told him it's for his benefit so he could stop worrying every time he heard a car because he thought it was his Dad. I checked and locked all the doors and shut all the windows and told eldest how to double snib the front door so no one with a key could get in and he had my dog to protect him too. The temperature was in the 90's. Off we went walking. It was 21.4 KM away but I was hoping to see a bus.

It was boiling hot, we ran out of water, we were walking on a duel carriageway. I could taste the salt on my top lip, my back was now killing me, my eldest was right, we must be mad attempting this.
P the social worker rang my mobile phone. I told her what we were doing and that I needed to get to L so I could get into the court in the morning and get this Barring Order to give eldest a bit of peace so he could relax and sleep as he was still worried about his father turning up whenever he wanted and we don't get informed by him if he was coming to the house. P told me she wished she could come and give us a lift but she was so busy. She wished us luck for tomorrow.

We had a bit of a fright with a white van man, a bloke drove past us then drove back and did a U turn shouting something from across the road to me, my gut was screaming so I ignored him, I told youngest if he came near us he had to run as fast as he could away from him, the bloke, eventually got back in his van and drove off.

I started promising angels everything if we could just get out of the heat and get a lift because I did not feel we could go much further, we crossed the road of the dual carriage way and I saw my youngest stoop down and pick things up from grass verge, the grass was very high, youngest had money in his hands, €90, I couldn't believe it, what were the chances of that happening, money just on the side of a dual carriageway, my son is one lucky boy, firstly to have seen it and for us to have crossed the road when we did for him to find it. I have never been so happy to have finished a walk, both of us had every muscle pulsating in us, we had walked for two hours and were still nowhere near L. I rang a taxi to come and get us and asked the driver if the money was real first just in case it wasn't. He said “it sure is” We stopped off at the solicitors office to collect the paperwork I needed for tomorrow then picked up more shopping from Lidl then came home again.

The creepy cab driver who drove us back inappropriately tried to hit on me in front of my youngest, disgusting creature that he was. When I got out to pay him, he held onto my hand for far too long and got a huge wad of cash out of his pocket, he was just showing off, he must have mistaken me for a hooker or something, he gave me the bloody shudders. He asked for my phone number, I gave him my English number because I will never use it again. My youngest asked me why I would give him my number when he's a creep, I told him I was a bit worried because the creep now knows where we live in an isolated area so that's why I didn't bite the head of him verbally and tell him to piss off in case of any comeback because we now lived on our own. That creep did in fact ring my English phone number but I would not have touched him with anyone else's never mind mine. Ugh!!

Eldest did not believe we found money, he thought we were winding him up but he was happy that we got more shopping and that I would be going to court in the morning.

N the lovely local taxi man from took me and youngest to Court. I went first into the Garda station and asked for Garda G because I spoke to him a lot from London and he did all he could to try and help my eldest and I wanted to thank him in person. He was manning the stations front desk, he shook my and youngests hand and said “it was a queer set up altogether, I didn't like that man's attitude at all, he seemed to put himself out to get the lad into bother and out of house and your boy is a very lucky boy having you came back for him” and he wished us all luck.

Next stop was the courthouse, the court clerk was a very nice and friendly old man, he told me what the set up was and what I had to do and had to say, he told me it would all be informal and would not take place in the actual court room but in a side room. The Judge was lovely, he asked me why I was applying for a Barring Order, I told him I had been advised twice and told him all that had gone on with the ex and my eldest and even tho I'm now back and would like to rip the head of the ex and would do so if he came near either of my sons but my eldest is still not at ease due to the ex landing at our doorstep any time he liked as in 10pm, midnight etc. I had to explain all previous domestic abuse when we lived with him and now he'd done exactly the same to my eldest re no food, no light, no heat, no TV, no computer, no shoes. I told him my eldest had been getting calls and texts from lads at his school telling him his Dad was stopping them in the street and telling them that my eldest was “off his head” and “tried to stab me” and more lies like that. I told the Judge about the ex buying alcohol for my eldests 14th birthday to take to school in his rucksack and he had a female friend called J.R who tried to persuade my eldest to get his mates round to drink it supervised in the home at age 14 and I'd informed Social Work but the Head of Social Work, Mary Kellegher told me not to worry about that at the moment and just concentrate on getting my eldest safe and when I confronted the ex about it he denied it all but my eldest had rang one of his friends P and asked him on speaker phone what he brought to school and what they did that day so it was confirmed and I believed my eldest and his friend P.

The judge granted the Barring Order, he said good luck and told me to stay strong. He was a nice man, he looked like an older Elvis, he had the same hair anyway and he laughed when I told him who he looked like. I know he must have been an Elvis fan. When I told M the Court Clerk what I told the Judge about looking like Elvis, he said “you did not” I said I did, he laughed his head off and said he couldn't wait to get down to the pub tonight and tell his mates what I told the Judge.

P the Social worker rang, she said she was closing the file because I'm now back but the ex was insisting she'd to “ring me to let me know what's going on” and he was still claiming “I'm worried about my youngest and my wife” and insisting “the Social Work Dept keeps track of them” I laughed out loud, I said “if he's that worried why is he ignoring my calls and my texts” She said if I need anything just call her at any time. She is a really nice girl.

I just remembered that when I told Mary Kellegher all about the booze the prick bought eldest to take to school and share with his mates that she said “don't be worrying about that at the moment, just concentrate on getting yourselves all safe” I suppose it would be a completely different story if my eldest and his mates had all got alcohol poisoning, I wonder if they would they have done anything about it then.

In desperation I rang the ex's work number. I got told he was just a mile away from the cottage. I rang the place he was working in and asked if he was in today, a girl told me yes but he was at lunch. I asked her could I please leave a message for him and told her she would need a pen, she said yes go ahead. I told her “ can you please inform my ex that this is his wife calling, me and our children are starving here a mere mile away and we have no money so could he please pay the maintenance he declared to me by text that he wanted to pay to support our children but has not done so” The girl started coughing. I asked her did she get all that down, she said yes and would make sure that he got the message. He wont be happy about that but I'm desperate, he's not sitting in an isolated and cold cottage with two kids, I am and he has a moral and a legal duty to support us all. I heard nothing from him, the bastard.

N from the agency rang me, she asked would we be interested in moving as they had a homeless unit there but we would have to get the bus from L so we could only take hand luggage with us but the units were all self-contained flats and lovely. I asked if I could speak to boys about it first, she said off course, I bless the day I first spoke to this lady when I was still in London.

The boys were adamant they didn't want to move there, my eldest said it's too close to where we used to live and someone might recognise us and he won't be able to carry his computer on a bus. I said at least I'll have my friend C nearby but no they weren't having any of it. I rang N and asked her if I could find my own accommodation and if that would that be okay. She said she would support me no matter what I do and that I do have a choice “it's your life”she said. Apparently it's not because I was voted against by the boys but I'm bothered as long as we are together and happy and never have to see that swine again.

I found us a small house in S, I haven't a clue where that is but it's the cheapest I could find. I rang and spoke to the landlord and he sounded like a lovely man. He was so friendly so I arranged to go see his house. N collected us from the train station in S .I had two houses to see but I chose the first one, it's a nice furnished house in a small, quiet cul de sac, it's perfect. I told the landlord I would love to live here and he called me the next day to offer us the house. We were moving in 7 days.

I cleaned, scrubbed and painted the cottage. My eldest took a lot of photos in case the ex would be up to his old lying tricks again re how we left the house. It's a pity I did not think to get photos of the house the day I first stepped off the ferry coming back. I had no idea how we would get to the train station never mind to S and I had my poor dog and cat to worry about too.

I sent voice mails and texts to the ex, to his boss, to his new friends B and J. I said the dog would be left in house on her own and I have enough to worry about. J.R is apparently a dog whisperer who's had a book published on the subject, well she kept pretty fucking quiet, because not one whisper or word did I get from any of those bastards to say okay, we will let the ex know, some animal lover she is.

C rang me the night before we were due to leave, she said she would be over to us first thing in the morning to help us, I could not believe it, she is so kind and so generous.

C arrived at 8am, it absolutely broke my heart to leave my dog behind and there was still no word re all my texts and calls made to the ex and all those useless bastards about my dog and cat. What kind of people are they? My tenancy said no animals were allowed, I was heart broken. The poor dog kept jumping onto the window ledge, I was in bits for her. I left out a huge basin of water and left a message for my solicitor. I eventually got a solicitor's letter telling me he had my dog, it wasn’t enough for him to try and starve us out the house but to torture me about thinking the poor dog would be starved and abandoned too was beyond the pale. What goes around, comes around and I hoped I would be alive to see it for myself.

I left him a very long letter:
Dear Husband, as you can see the cottage has been vacated and left in a very clean and decent state and also freshly painted. So unlike how you lived in it and expected my eldest to also. As I have repeatedly requested my dogs injection book from you many times and which you have failed to deliver I have had to leave her behind for the time being. I have notified my solicitor of this and have also tried to contact you by phone, by text, I have left you voice mails and emails, all of which you have ignored. I have also contacted your boss K and your so called friends B and J.R, all to no avail. I have no doubts that you will try and claim that you have not been informed at all but I have the copies of all texts and all emails. Due to your ongoing inability to tell the truth and your usual weave of fabricated bullshit I have many photographs of the cottage dated as we leave to prove what I say is true. These photo's will be produced as and when needed if you attempt to make up any more spurious lies about the family home and what I have done to it as you told my solicitor. You have got to be the most disturbed man that I have ever come across, never mind marry and lay down with. I know of no other person in my life, past or present as cold, calculating and disturbed in the head as you are. What you have done to me and to your only flesh and blood, your own children is incomprehensible. I should have had the energy to see thru you many years ago, I did see thru you but was far too trapped to get out, you made sure that I was trapped with nothing, absolutely nothing. I hope you get treatment for yourself but I fear it may be too late for you at this stage. I always did find it curiously peculiar that not one person you knew came to our wedding, that you had not one friend in your life to attend your own wedding, that should have set of alarm bells for me but you always did have a plausible reason for everything. You also took charge of the whole event, you planned everything, something a woman would normally do but I now know that you wanted complete control and just extended that to complete control eventually over me. You decided if and when I got to go out which became never, you controlled if I smoked or not, if I ate, if I shopped, even if I read a magazine, the list is endless and I will never find it in myself to ever forgive you especially for what you have done to my eldest and my youngest, two innocent children who did not ask to be born, who did not need a freak like you as their father. But you never were a father to them, were you? How in God's name could you not have given them a thought recently as to what they would be eating if you were not providing us with food or money, that is just despicable, I have no doubts at all that you managed very well to stuff your own fat face, smoke your usual 60 a day, have your bottle of wine and 4 cans per night or would you be back on the cannabis again. I do know that they will never forget your actions, your inactions and your reactions to these two lovely boys, how could they, you have given them an awful childhood and left them with dreadful memories of abuse, physical, mental, emotional and verbal that they no doubt will now carry into their teens and adulthood and I hope to fuck that they never turn out like you. My eldest did tell me that your last excuse over your inability to contact my youngest which you told all your new found friends is that he had been brainwashed by me, what a self pitying pathetic creature you are. How can anyone brainwash a 13 year old who lived with you for 12 of those years, would you like me to send your new friends what I posted on your genealogy website which forced your hand into contacting your youngest son, shall I remind you what I wrote that had you panic as it was public “you are a useless father who neglects your own child” Shall I remind you what you wrote to yourself “She has a point about me not getting in touch with youngest but I do not want or need any reply from him but I do from her” What kind of person does that make you. Not a sane one that is for sure. Do you know that when youngest talks about himself regards you, his own dad, he calls himself “her fucking mini me” you planted those words in his head and so his mouth, not me and you have the cheek to tell your new found friends that I am brainwashing youngest, this is a poor excuse for your neglect of him. Youngest is mature enough to know who has always been there for him, who loves him, who gave him time and attention and affection and love, you are incapable of all the above, none of those things ever came from you. From someone who knows you as well as you know yourself, I am taking this opportunity to tell you a few home truths about you. You are a chameleon, you bend and shape yourself, your words, your actions, music, you change everything about yourself to fit in with your latest whoever, whom ever you are trying to impress, you can never even be true to yourself and that is why I know that you will never be happy and will never know what real unconditional love is, you do not have it in you to love. You are so transparent and transitional, bending, shaping and clinging yourself onto someone like a vine. I would go as far as to say that you have psychopathic tendencies as you have never once shown any conscience over any of your wrong doing's to me or your children. The cruelty you bestowed on us will never be forgotten or forgiven. You are just a bully who is actually a huge coward who became cruel, spiteful and vindictive when we could not or would not dance to your tune. I fully intend to let EVERYONE know the real you. What father screams at his kids when they were age 9 and 10 that “they are lazy little c**** who should be doing work to help around the house” yet within 10 minutes outside their school you were talking ever so gently to other peoples kids. And you, you pathetic wimp needed counselling due to your own pathetic childhood, playing the “poor me, woe is me martyr” Poor little you “hiding behind the curtains” poor little you “peeling the paint off the walls for hours” and poor little you, “no one ever noticed me” “no one cuddled me” And your father never lifted a finger against you. You pathetic son of a bitch. What about your child, our eldest and all you have done to harm him and that he remembers. Have you ever once thought for a second of all the abuse you inflicted on your own children, have you ever regretted not being a real and proper father to them, teaching them things. There was no talking to them about anything with you was there, you simply ignored them except when they got on your nerves, then you were screaming, shouting, swearing at them, throwing a tantrum, throwing and breaking whatever you could get your hands on, normally the cups and the dishes, hitting eldest because he would mouth off at you which I reported to the school and to the Garda, you bad bastard. Our youngest always got ignored, like he did not exist in your eyes because in your eyes he got all my attention, in your eyes he was my favourite and you passed that onto our eldest didn't you to try and drive a wedge between them and it worked didn't it. There are not enough bad words in the English dictionary that I could use to describe a low life like you. Now neither eldest or youngest exist in your head. How the hell does one man get so self centred and self absorbed that only him and his feelings matter to him. How the hell does one man tell so many lies and convince himself and anyone else that will listen that they are true and so cover up all abuse done to his wife and kids just to get in with new friends. I think it is time to get yourself a new psychiatrist, do you remember going to see the one that Dr R told you to go to see after I told her what you were doing to me at home and had me believe I was losing my mind, did you even go to that appointment, I can clearly remember you telling me that you did go but that the psychiatrist told you the wrong person was on his couch, luckily I told Dr R who said that was rubbish and no professional worth their salt would utter such things about a person they had never met before. Funny you always had someone else to blame for everything. It looks like the very close friends I did have and you took me from and so I lost all their numbers when you had my little black book disappear but denied it to my face, were right about you all along, they had you analysed perfectly “he is one strange man” said by my Irish friend Ann in London “all he wants is to be mothered” said by my Irish friend Veronica in London. I would never have enough space to type all that Gloria said to your face which is why you did not like her, she detested you back in equal measure as she could see thru you and she could not stand you. “What the hell are you doing with someone like him, he's a bit odd isn't he” said by Carol in London. “There is something wrong with him” said by Sue “Is he a bit soft in the head” said by my ex Jack. But you know you are mentally ill don't you, you just do not want anyone else to know but “the truth will always out” as Auntie Gloria would say because you cannot hide your real self forever. You need and you demand 100% attention and if you do not get it you throw the biggest tantrums, you do all in your power to get attention or you switch off, disappear, threaten suicide, cut all communication, have mini breakdowns, “help me I cannot drive, come find me” blah, blah, blah, You are a disturbed man. But what of your kids then, well let me tell you they will be fine, you want to know why, because they have me, yes, little old me, the woman who had the real shit and abusive childhood, no parent nor family in my life but guess what, I have more maternal feelings in my pinkie than you could ever have, or hope to have. I know what love is and I love my kids so much more than I ever loved you. Your diaries of old that you hid in the steel file box could have been written by you today and not 20 years ago, as you are still spouting the same old woe is you shit aren't you. I probably will never get to know why you gave me and my kids such a miserable and abusive existence all these years, I know that you hate us, you told us all but I know that you actually hate yourself too, you will never know what it feels like to be a normal human being, I know one day I will be informed that you have been carted off somewhere, I know that will not give me any satisfaction but I know that it will explain an awful lot as you went out of your way to make me believe that I was mental didn't you. That makes you the ultimate abuser. I have been reading up on a lot and getting a lot of information from women’s agencies about men like you. Men like you can never change. I have questioned myself often why I stayed with you as long as I did, the only reason/ excuse that I can come up with is that I really did love you but you did not deserve that love did you and then I found out thru my online alter ego that you “never really knew what love meant” I truly believe you are mad. Let me get back to our children, you know nothing about them at all. I had to remind you when our youngest turned 13 but you were far too busy “drooling over the bodies walking around L and about B” but you “hated her name” My youngests brain never stops, he constantly comes up with things to do to occupy himself, he never stops writing, drawing, building or designing, he is fantastic with his imagination and his hands. He is a happy lad, he always has a smile on his face and he is friendly, polite, respectful and chatty to all we meet, he is very funny and and fast with his put downs, just like his mum, he has a fantastic personality and is very loyal and will go far in life as he has goals, he is driven and is the nicest boy I have ever known, I am proud to call him my son, I love him so much and he loves me. He is the very opposite of you which I am happy about but you would not know anything about him as you do not give a crap about him, you never tried to get to know him, not even when he lived under the same roof as you. Our eldest is gorgeous looking, extremely intelligent, shy and finds it hard to make friends as he's so shy but when he does he is fiercely loyal. He is very well read on every subject, he knows exactly what he is talking about, he is also a brilliant mimic, I love hearing him try different accents, he makes me laugh. He will go far academically but emotionally thanks to you and your neglect, your abuse, your violence, your lies, your trying to crush his very spirit out of him so you could get rid of him to leave you free to chase women around the country because you could not control him any more yet told B on the phone that you “admired her relationship she had with her children because she had no rules” and you chatted away to her kids and my eldest heard it all, how the fuck do you think that left him feeling, you cruel bastard, you are a disgrace and I hope you rot in hell for all eternity. I personally found it heart breaking when my eldest told me that he “felt the cottage was lighter and brighter in atmosphere now and even when things were okay between you and dad and dad and us we still had our shoulders up around our ears” That almost made me weep, when I asked him why he had not told me any of this before, he said “I did not know I was doing it till dad was gone” My poor children should have been loving life, not fucking worrying about your mood swings, not worrying how you would come home, if someone had pissed you off at work would they would suffer for it, would we all would suffer for it and all because you were too much of a coward to confront anyone to their face, you could only be the man you wanted to be once home and against your wife and your kids. Do you know what it is like to wonder if you will get fed or not depending on your husband, your dad's mood, if you will get spoken to or not, if when you speak will the person just look thru you as if you are not even there, do you know how that feels, how would you have liked to be told constantly to “shut the fuck up with all your crap, I don't want to hear it, have worked my balls off all day, I want peace in my house” and numerous other breaking of people's spirit words of shit from you to us. I hope that you never have the cheek or the gall to tell anyone that you are a dad as you have done nothing to earn that title at all. Congratulations, you did not just lose your marriage, you lost your wife and your kids, you drove us all out, not many men can claim that, can they. So lets look to the future and all that may bring. Firstly me with my balls of steel that you were always so envious of will love and protect my sons so that you and no other man will ever cause them a days harm as long as I live, they know they are loved by me, I tell them every day and I always have done. I will never use them to divide them as you did for your own selfish and puerile reasons. It is my job to raise them and see that they eventually leave me with some happy memories under their belt, they have my love, my attention, my affection, we laugh, we converse now without fear, we argue, we shout, but that is what normal families do, we deserve normality and we shall have it. As for you, well all I can tell you is they both said that they never want to see you ever again, they may change their minds out of curiosity and I will not stand in their way, they have their own minds, they are not my puppets to control as you tried to do with us all. We have had long conversations trying to work you out, we wonder how you could be so cold and cruel to us yet portray yourself to be this wonderful and gentle person who would do anything for anyone to everyone else. We just do not know how you can keep up this dual personality at all, it must be exhausting for you, no wonder you always claim you are knackered, it is not because you have worked your balls off all day, it's because you use so much energy hiding the cruel bastard you really are from the outside world. You denied everything to do with buying my eldest vodka and Buckfast for his birthday yet I heard P on the phone saying what a craic they had with the booze, you are one lucky man that none of them in school that day had to get their stomach's pumped. According to you, you did not buy it for eldest and you do not know how he got it, I find that strange as he does not look 18, he did not have access to any money and he did not have any transport. So why would your new friend J.R ask my eldest to save it for after school and invite his school friends home so that they could be supervised, fucking supervised boozing at age 14. Do you also know that woman freaked my eldest out as he seen what she was writing to you on MSN saying that she loved him, loved my child, you pair of freaks poisoning young bodies like that. I have told a Judge, sworn on oath with my solicitor and informed the Garda and the Social work Dept of what you both did and now deny. I will remember you for the rest of my life so that I never let a lying creep such as you ever take control of my life, ever take away my independence, my freedom, crush me, control me, use and abuse me mentally, emotionally, physically, sexually and financially. You however will never forget me and what you lost. Your conversation in the street with P's mum just proves what a bad bastard, lying, cowardly piece of filth you really are but I'm sure you didn't think for one minute we would ever get to know about it. The poor woman must have thought you were completely deranged, she doesn't know you, she doesn't know my eldest and you thought it was okay to stop her in the street going about her business and tell her that my eldest is mentally ill and tried to stab you, I have no chance of my eldest ever attending that school again but I will put that poor woman straight and tell her what you are. I will never stop telling anyone who will listen what you are and what you did to me and my kids, abusers like you only get away with it because women like me are so ashamed and I had nothing to be ashamed about did I, so I will no longer stay quiet as far as you are concerned. God help the next woman you trap but I doubt anyone will put up with your madness for too long so you are destined for a lonely life, which you also gave to me as I will never have another man in my life until my children are healed from all you did to them and I know that will take a long time as look at the state my eldest is in because of you. One thing I do know and can say in all honesty is I am totally free of you and this time I will never return. I will collect my dog and my cat when I am given permission from the landlord to do so, you could not look after your own child so god help my animals till I get them back”
End of letter.

So what exactly did he do to my eldest? 

Pretty much the same as he did to me but I'm an adult. He stopped giving him money for school lunch, he did not have a hot meal for him after school, he expected the poor child to sit in an office till he finished work which could be as late as 10pm, he left eldest hungry till he alone decided if he would get him anything to eat, he stopped talking to eldest depending on his mood, he ignored eldest if he spoke to him, he told him to shut the fuck up, he told him he was not going to listen to his crap, he told him he was a fucking psychopath just like his mum, he left him alone in the house with no food, no heat, he just got on with how he wanted to live his life, out seeking woman, out seeking clubs and groups to join, out pretending he was a free agent with no responsibilities, pretending that eldest did not even exist, he probably didn't want my eldest to exist, he had no use of eldest once I had gone, he only used my eldest because he needed someone on his side against me and youngest when we still lived at the cottage, those were horrendous times. He removed anything that would have given my eldest any comfort, he removed his computer, the TV, even the electric, he would not buy him shoes when they no longer fit him because eldest would not go to the shoe shop with him then he claimed he had no money to buy him any but he could afford to buy B a woman he met online Astrological Reports and Danger Mouse toys. My eldest stopped going to school and told no one what was going on, not even me. He left eldest alone all Easter weekend whilst he went off to Cork for work then took a detour to Wexford to visit B. When my eldest told me, I hounded my ex by phone to get back home to eldest or I would ring the Garda. He returned at midnight on the Sunday having been gone since the Friday at 5am, he told my eldest it would never happen again and promised him that he would make it up to him but instead he locked himself away in his room staying up all night fixing B's computer. Instead of giving my eldest his basic human rights or love, affection, attention, time, food, heating, clothing, the lousy bastard was too busy having a mid life crisis and making himself indispensable to people he'd just met. To have left a 13 year old with nothing except his own thoughts must have been torturous for him, it was bad enough for me and my youngest but we always had each other, this lousy bastard of a man went out of his way to destroy the relationship between me and my eldest and so my eldest chose to stay with him and look what he did. He bought booze for his 14th Birthday and allowed him to drink booze at J. R's parties then he denied it. He attacked eldest verbally and physically and blamed everything on eldest, he even told the woman B that he thought my eldest was mental and she who had never met my son told the lousy bastard my son needed professional help and that was when he got a doctor into the house, after listening to his “online bitch" when all he wanted to do was get into her knickers, he would have said and done anything to do that. I can read that man like a book. He rang the Garda about my eldest on numerous occasions, he got a doctor in the house on a Saturday after giving my eldest all his belongings back and made him a dinner then called him out of his room to get it and lo and behold a doctor was standing in the house and he told the doctor “my son needs help” all because B had apparently told him “you must do so as a matter of urgency” which he told me she had advised him to do and when I told him I would be contacting her personally about it he totally denied saying she's told him to do this. Nutter. He stopped my eldests school mates in the street including P's mum and told them all that my eldest was mentally ill and had tried to stab him.

What I wrote in June before I left that man.

Lord in heaven please help me get away from this draining, boring agony of a life with this man, one shot we all get at life and this is mine, I can see nothing ever changing with him. He sighs loudly and constantly as if every intake of breath is too much of an effort for him, I have spent 16 years listening to him. I do not know what on earth I have done now to upset him, maybe it's because I had the cheek to ask if we could go out anywhere for a change of scenery, to get out of this house that he never lets me leave. Maybe it's because I will not have sex with someone who does not wash in days because he is too damn lazy to do so. Maybe it's because I tell him I do not believe him telling me “we are skint” when I know he has just been paid and had the private rent from London too. I have no idea what I've done but I know he has the major hump with me, he has stopped talking to me and stopped talking to the kids. I refuse to even try and drag out of him what is wrong with him as I'm not fit for his seething, silent tantrums any more, he can and go bore the arse of someone else with my blessing. How come I have to make all the changes to accommodate him, why the hell should I. I like who I am, he stayed the same, exactly the same. I am sick of his control over us all, sick of his immature, pathetic, mind boring, non ambition with no life force in him to speak of, we go nowhere, we do nothing. I ran him a bath and told him it was ready, he said he did not want it, I told him it's Sunday and you have not washed since Thursday, that was my polite way of telling him he stinks to high fucking heaven and I cannot get his body odour out of my sinuses, he said he wasn't having a bath. He makes our lives hell and they get worse when he's in the house with us at weekends.

He made eldest an administrator on the family computer which is now password protected so I and youngest cannot go on it, yet we are the ones at home all day whilst he and eldest are out. This made eldest think he is now 2nd in command and our lives become worse.

He removed the fuse from the plug of the computer, youngest realised when we first thought it was broken yet they had been on it in the morning.

He removed the main fuse from the main electric board. I thought it must be a power cut, again youngest realised what he had done and stood on a chair to check the electric box.

He got eldest a McDonald’s when he was out at work with him, again nothing for youngest, when I confronted him he said I could have called him and asked him. The swine.

Youngest asked if could he go to dads work, he told me not today then told youngest “you could have asked me yourself” leaving youngest in tears and home with me yet again.

He took eldests side when I had an argument with him and I ordered eldest to his bed, he heard eldest threaten me, calling me fat fucking whore and spit in my face but said he seen nothing and he heard nothing but he was standing right next to me.

Eldest was given complete power over me, his own mum. He was sanctioned by dad to do and say what he liked to me and to youngest and eldest took full advantage of this, he treated us both like shit. I was told by a professional that the ex had polarised the family and that it was now a Child Protection Issue as youngest was being badly bullied.

He wrote “I hate her and her fucking mini-me” referring to me and youngest. I was told by a professional that him saying that meant he had huge issues from his own childhood, his parent-child relationship especially if he did not have a good one with either parent, I was told that he was harbouring jealousy at seeing the good relationship that youngest and I had even if he was not consciously aware that he was jealous. The professional said that his actual statement of “I hate her and her fucking mini-me” was a strange and disturbing thing to say about a spouse and his 12 year old son.

Eldest when age 10 refused to get coal in, he went ballistic and dragged eldest outside, he got him in a head lock and said “I'm restraining him and he can sleep outside all night and he is not allowed to come back in the house till he has done what he’s been fucking told to do” I rang the Garda. I then visited the Garda, my friend C took me and they could not give a shit, they did not even take my name. I told the head teacher, G all that dad was doing in the house and also to eldest, all G said is he will keep an eye on eldest and pray for us!!

He cashed in our Life Insurance without my knowledge, he banked the money from that in his UK bank account, none of us saw penny of it.

He rang Abbey National and claimed someone was using his debit card fraudulently on line when he was the only person using it. He always claims he has no money in the bank until I behave myself then he finds money.

He has locked me in when we lived in a flat 4 floors up, taking my keys and hand bag with him, leaving me with two babies with no way out if an emergency.

He left me suicide notes and disappeared and I had to call police.

He told me he was at work when he was not. Women’s intuition told me otherwise. And I was right.

He sent me flying thru air and I badly hurt my tail bone, I could not sit properly for 6 weeks, and walking was agony, he wrote “she lost her grip and fell and had the fucking cheek to con hospital fee’s out of me” yet both my boys saw it all and my eldest declared he saw nothing and he heard nothing just like dad said for him previously.

He moved himself and “his” computer into the spare room and put locks on the door, I could hear jangling keys at all hours of the night like the jailer he had become. He does nothing but smoke and drink, awake all night, like a zombie in the day time, he did not speak to me or the kids for weeks. He only goes for shopping when he wants something, he tells us all to “fuck off” if we say we need anything.

I talked it over with a professional, she came up with the following.
He removes the computer from us = Controlling
He refuses to get shopping = Controlling
He stops speaking to us all = Controlling
His behaviour towards us his family = Loss of self control
His Mini Breakdowns = Seeking my pity to bring me back into line and under his control again.
Cashing the Life Insurance without my knowledge = No respect at all for his wife.
Reporting fraudulent use of his Credit Card =Punishing spouse, putting spouse in fear, reclaiming control he feels he has lost over spouse.

Claiming he had no money in the bank once I returned from London after a break when I could not cope with his cruelty in the cottage even tho I knew he had €4,000 in the account = Punishment for going to London + Showing his spouse who the boss is + Enforcing spouse back under his control or she will not eat or be given any money, but once I told him we have to try and be friends for the kids sake till I left for good he miraculously gets money out of the bank when he “could not” only an hour before = Spouse being rewarded for seeing sense.

Eldest age 10 and youngest age 9 “And those lazy little c**** can get off their lazy fucking arses and do something to help in this house” = No child will want to help anyone after being told this which ensures he can remain angry with his children + He has no love nor respect for his children + Bullying and verbal and emotional abuse of children.

He would do anything for anyone outside of the house and anything for his boss = Subservient and compliant behaviour, non assertive, easily used and led astray, wants to be liked, has no self respect.

He writes down things that are not true, his version of events that are not true = Needs an account of his lies as would not be able to remember them + is unable or unwilling to comprehend or accept what he does and says is wrong, is unacceptable + if he wrote down what actually happened he would probably be shocked at such behaviour.

He writes and talks to others nastily about his spouse unaware that his spouse is reading what he writes = He needs you but does not want you + he tells you he loves you and you are his soul mate and best friend and no one else will ever understand him like you do but his actions show that he hates you, he has no respect for you, he feels no need to respect you, he is actually afraid of you, afraid of women.

The professional told me that I am not to blame for the way he acts towards me and my kids, that he would be the same with any other partner and kids, that his childhood is his problem and he is an adult who should have sought and should be seeking for help for himself. That his controlling ways are his problem. His inability to be assertive outside of the house is his problem, his personality or lack of one is his problem.

He screams at me to get off my fat lazy arse and get a job but he refuses to stick to his contractual hours and get home when he is supposed to finish work so I never know when he will be home. = He puts himself first, he discharges himself as part of a family, he keeps himself out of the family unit, he sees his spouse as of little or no importance, he did nothing to contain his family unit, he did not see spouse as person of equal importance in her own right.

He wrote “I would not see them go without but why should I pay to keep her in the lazy arsed manner she has become accustomed too” = Discharging of all his responsibility as a husband and as a father + sees spouse's value as of little worth + has selective memory of all past and present input by spouse to he family and the home and all past employments when his spouse also had the children to raise.

He wrote “She will get nothing, she will never get anything out of me” = It is a spouses legal entitlement to get what she is legally entitled to for herself and her children, it does not matter what he says, what he thinks or what he writes to the contrary.

The list would be endless but to be told what he does and what it meant was enlightening. For him to acknowledge the actual truth would make him be seen as having a lack of self-control, be seen as what he actually is, an abuser. He has a real fear of the truth about him becoming public knowledge and will probably take all steps to ensure this does not ever happen. Most abusers will never give up absolute control of their spouse no matter who many years pass from Separation.

He will no doubt use his single father martyrdom for his own selfish benefit and will use eldest to polish his halo for the outside world. He had promised to always put eldest first, to put eldest before his work, before himself but I doubted that he would and no amount of telling my eldest this would budge his stance of coming to London with me and with youngest. I told my eldest to never believe his fathers promises because he never keeps them, he will say anything to get you off his back but he does the very opposite. I told my eldest do not think that dad will put you first because he won't, do not expect dad to be a good father because he never has in the past so why would he start now, I told my eldest that his father would see someone else in the shit before he ever landed himself in it because he has no loyalty to anyone unless there is something in it for him but my eldest would not listen.

He always played happy families outside of the house acting as a loving father and husband to my friends and to strangers but in the house it was a different matter altogether. He told all his family that I had a personality disorder. Yes I have a bloody fantastic personality and he was my fucking disorder.

L my sister in law said “the whole family are the same, a queer bunch, they cannot handle anyone who shows emotion and they do not know how to handle or control their own emotions and they are all anal retentive, they all switch off and cut off the person who would have the audacity to confront them by way of feelings or emotions, they sweep everything under the carpet or run away” and she believed everything I told her was happening as hasn't she herself seen the same for years and years. She actively encouraged me “to get out and leave him before it was too late as it was for her” She said that “anyone they came upon who displayed a bit of spirit in them had to be repressed by them, were frowned upon, were beaten down and they had to be felt sorry for as we could eventually escape but they would still have to live with themselves”

R his brother was a bad bastard to his wife J the girl was from the Philippines When J came to the UK she was stuck in a house of doom and gloom with R who could not hold a conversation to save his life. The poor girl in a foreign country and totally isolated gave birth to a son and R and his mother swiftly took over and would not let her near her own child, she said if she walked into the room, one of them would lift the child and take him out of the room away from her. She was beaten down so much mentally and emotionally she had to leave and left the baby behind, but she fought thru the courts and proved to the court that both R and his mother were liars and she got full custody of her son. She got a decent financial settlement after only one year of marriage and R claims to be a good Christian man. Yeah right. It seems to me that they are all tarred with the same mad brush.

Now we have moved house thanks to my lovely friend C and her husband.

I am getting worried there may be more wrong with my eldest than he's letting on to me. Something is amiss, very amiss. He's always in a permanent bad mood, he shouldn't have to shut himself away any more because he has nothing to be scared of any more because his father is completely out of the picture and doesn't know where we live now. He said he has insomnia but I'm convinced he's done that on purpose so he doesn't have to face anyone or be asked any awkward questions, especially by me, so when he cannot give me a fast enough answer he just bites the bloody head of me and makes me feel so small. I seem to be getting verbally attacked by him for no frigging reason at all except how he himself feels. His promise to me that he would go to the same school as my youngest fell thru. He did try, god love him but he returned home after only getting as far as the school gates. I was ironing and was shocked to see him come back so quickly. I asked him what happened and he yelled at me “fuck off and leave me alone” then hid himself away in his bedroom for days, he did not even answer me when I called up to him so he's now in the house all day and every day and I need help. When I rang the school Principal she said she knew by my eldests body language that he would not attend school and she gave me the numbers for school Inclusion and a NEPS person.

These people both came to the house one morning, my eldest was lying on the couch and pretended to be asleep. I was mortified because I knew he was awake, he had been talking to me before I answered the door to both M and A. M told me she would send a report to a Child Psychologist and seek help that way.

It's been one year and 11 days since I left that man. I tasted freedom for just a short while and had it snatched away again. My heart feels like it's been smashed and bashed and broken, I don't know how other people get over all that has happened. I suppose I feel stuck due to unfinished business, unanswered questions. The ex has proved he is the cruellest, most spiteful, vindictive, pathetic, emotionally retarded lying and cheating scum that I ever came upon. I hope one day that I will get justice for me and my kids.

I twisted my ankle five weeks ago on a pavement that builders had dug up and not filled in properly and I'm limping badly, it’s still not better, I've had an x ray and a morphine injection and I'm waiting on physiotherapy. I was told I've torn the ligaments and that it can take an age to heal so I need to be patient. It feels like bone is scraping off bone and is so painful. My youngest is an enormous help but I still have to get from A to B when he's in school.

I contacted the Social Work Department of our area asking for Family Support because I do not know what to do or how to help my eldest.

A social worker called Del turned up at my door unannounced. I was just out of the shower. I was dressed but my hair was still wet and I had no mascara on, I am never seen without my mascara on, I have white eyelashes. I was mortified, the frigging cheek of him to park in another street and just land on me like that. He said he was in the area so was just dropping by to see how I was. I took the head off him, asking what did he expect to find, Ronan O Gara sat naked on my chair, he laughed and offered to make me a cup of tea because I'm having difficulty walking and I'm now using crutches. I declined but I opened every cupboard in the kitchen just so he could take a look as I instinctively knew that is what he would have done anyway.

Then came the real reason for his unexpected and unannounced visit, they want to inform the Dad that social work are involved with the family. I said “over my dead body” then I asked him “in what capacity are you involved with my family” he replied “Family Support” so I asked him, “who is in my family, is my husband here, is he part of this family, no he bloody well is not, only I and my two kids are family” Del said “we have to cover our backs in case it ever goes to court if he applies for access” I said “and what are the chances of him ever doing that when he showed them not an ounce of love and respect and more to the point what are the chances of my boys ever agreeing to seeing him. Yes he might indeed apply but only if one of his “online bitches” starts questioning him about not seeing his sons” I told Del “I'm officially and strongly opposing you contacting that man for any reason whatsoever and only when my boys tell me you can contact him, will it happen” Del then told me one of the most stupid things I have ever heard, he said “he will never know your whereabouts” I said “it won’t take a bloody genius to work out where we are as soon as he gets any letter from the Social Work Dept and if you inform that bastard of anything then I no longer want anything to do with you” He said he would speak to his supervisor and get back to me, then asked me if I could get “eldest down to at least meet me” I called my eldest down but got told by him “fuck off, you are just a fucking clone of Dad” I roared up the stairs “I knew nothing about this visit and do you really think I would have wet hair and no make up on and let a professional in, I knew nothing about this visit at all” Del smiled as if to say that’s teenagers for you, I could have slapped him, now my eldest would be in Christ knows what kind of mood all day and only I am here to frigging handle it.

Del rang me to tell me they are not going to inform the swine ex of anything, he said “it's not in best interests of the children” I said it's not in my bloody best interests either. He said “you're a very upfront person and I like that”

I attended an interview for 2nd Chance Education, I really need this, bad ankle or not, I cannot be sitting at home or I will go insane, I need to be out and talking to others. The interview went well, I got told the course would not tax my brain but the social side would be beneficial for me. I start next Tuesday.

I have been asking myself what I want and firstly it's money, it's an appalling nightmare us living like paupers and having no heat and this house is freezing cold, we hardly have any food, we are just living day to day with nothing extra to get any luxuries, no clothes, no treats, no trips out. I cannot even get to the hospital to get my ankle sorted because I have no train fare. Xmas is going to break my heart, my kids are going to have nothing at all to open and all the years I worked extra crap jobs from September onwards just so they got everything they asked for on their Santa list, yes it has got to be better than last year when the swine of an ex booted my eldest on the back of his thigh and almost landed him in the lit fire whilst I was in the bath and had to come running out, the swine of an ex then spent the rest of the night locked in his car writing on the back of “How to raise your kids self-esteem notes” a typical husband ploy, he took a parenting class for under 5's when he had a teenager being neglected by him in the house” He appeared to have forgotten all he learned at that parenting class because he was screaming at my eldest that he was “a fucking psychopath” then he sat in the car drinking a bottle of Baileys and smoking till he passed out. He did not come into the house to see the boys open their presents, only I did in their bedroom and when he did come back into the house he kept his jacket on all day and declared “I will be keeping it on because I might be leaving, it all depends on your behaviour” Happy fucking Xmas to us.

I want an education so badly, I was just two weeks away from my three Holistic Exams, fucked and foiled by the swine ex yet again but what choice did I have, I had to come back for my eldest.

I want a place we can call our own, somewhere settled, safe and secure for the boy’s that no one can come in and dictate to us.

I want a social life, I do not know how it feels any more to get dressed up and go out and nor do I have any going out clothes or shoes. I want a social life for the kids, to have their own friends and to go off and enjoy themselves.

I want a sex life. Maybe. I don't know.

I want a lobotomy to erase every memory of that fucking bollix swine.

I received English Divorce Papers I instigated in London which he would not sign. They were now signed by the swine. I'm completely confused, he's not contesting it and it was signed on the 15th August but it's now November and all has been filled in by someone else’s hand writing. He's using his mother’s address is Wales where his solicitors name and address should be. Seeing it in black and white made me cry. I rang my solicitor, she said do not sign anything until she's had a look at it then she told me he's handed in €520 maintenance, I asked her why the weird amount, she said she didn't know, I told her I could not wait for the post to come on Monday so I'm going to travel to L and collect it in person because we are desperate for it. I got my youngest from school and we got the train to L, it was lashing down so hard with rain that the train was held up due to flooding on the tracks, I squeezed my youngests hand so tight because I thought we would end up in the Shannon, all my paperwork for the solicitor was soaked right thru but W the secretary said she would dry them on their radiators. When we passed the swine's work place my youngest said “if you want me to I will go up and see him and knock him out” I told him no, all that would do is get us into trouble and stuck in bloody L and eldest stuck in S, he made me laugh tho.

We went for a huge shop in a supermarket then got a cab to the cottage to get my printer and see what I could get from a list that eldest made for me to collect for him. My youngest had his own list of all his belongings he wanted to collect. The cab driver K, born and bred in the area apparently didn't know where the cottage was nor the name of the nearest neighbours, the lying cow, her cab cost me €40, it's normally €20, I was raging.

I had three keys with me for the cottage, mine and my sons and none of our keys fitted, the swine had changed the frigging locks on the door, that is completely illegal and I was on crutches, in the pitch dark and pissing down from the heavens rain. I almost exploded. I rang him straight away but he cut me off after three rings, his phone went to voice mail. I left a message telling him where we were and we needed to get into the cottage and what he'd done was illegal and I would ring the Garda, no call came back. I sent him a text telling him he will not get away with this, no reply. Bastard. I shone the light from my mobile phone into the window and saw new chairs in the living room, a new quilt was on the bed, my sons room was packed high with boxes and was now like a storage room, things I did not recognise were in the kitchen, a woman’s clothes were hanging from the doorways. My youngest reminded me the back door was not secure so he got us in that way, someone was obviously living here that I knew nothing about, there was a bin in the bedroom that had envelopes in it, I lifted one, it was addressed to A. K. There was a pair of dirty knickers lying on the bedroom floor. I rang my eldest, he said “that's Dad’s friend, the one who's after him but he called her dog ugly behind her back, he said he would not go near it but he goes out walking hills with her”

Even tho this was my house I felt uncomfortable being here, there was no sign of my dog anywhere in the house so he obviously did not live here. My mate D rang me and I told him what was going on, he told me “stay put, call the Garda and sling her out, she's no right being there, it's illegal” I sent the swine another text “A. K. is installed in my house illegally without my knowledge, consent or my signature and you will be sorry” no reply. I wrote the occupier a note, “My name is etc. I am co-owner of this house you are living in illegally, I want to know if you have a contract, when it started, when it ends and how much rent you are paying” and I added my phone number and put it thru the letter box. A huge kick in the teeth was the satellite dish was now firmly screwed tight to the wall and no longer balanced on a toy plastic box for swift knocking over so we would not have any signal in the cottage when we lived there.

I would have stayed all night and personally thrown her out, the way I felt, the sheer fucking cheek of them, but I had my youngest with me and did not want him to see me distressed. The battery was very low on my mobile so I rang N, the cab man and he came to collect us and dropped us off at the train station. I could not believe it when I was told at the station that we missed the last train because it left at 7pm. I was in bits and very upset, tired, hungry and soaked to the fucking skin as was my youngest and my ankle felt on fire due to all the walking I'd done. My youngest gave me a hug. We went into a pub to use their phone as mine kept shutting off due to my dying battery, the bar man asked if we wanted a drink and I said yes, I ordered tea for me and a diet coke for my youngest and explained our dilemma to the bar man, he got out a train time table and told us the next train was 9pm, thank you god, I thought I had left us stranded.

It felt like forever getting back home, the train was full of teens all having a good time and carrying a blow up doll which made me and my youngest laugh. My good friend C rang me but I quickly told her about my battery being very low, I sent her a text explaining the short version of events that had just happened. We didn't get home till 10.30pm. I walked so slowly holding on to my youngests arm from the train station to the house. My eldest came flying down the stairs as he was expecting what I was supposed to have collected for him from his list but we could not find anything at all because the boxes in my sons old bedroom were all full of stuff I didn't recognise so I couldn't find anything of his. My eldest was like a bull shouting and swearing about his father. Me and youngest were wrecked with tiredness.

C then rang me and I cried down the phone to her, it had been a day from hell, first the unexpected divorce papers from London then the rest of the horrible day. I said he's an evil man and she agreed. I vented my fury by email to my solicitor.

I have to say that for a country I don't want to live in because of my ex, I've found the most wonderful, genuine and friendly people here and luckily I make friends with people easily.

I walked to the library with my youngest and I tripped over on my bad ankle and screamed the place down, the lady in the library gave me a chair to sit on and we eventually went to down visit Brid, my new friend, she got her sister to bring down crutches and she made us lunch and insisted that I eat it, she said in the space of a month she has watched my weight go down so fast, I didn't even feel hungry but I ate every drop of the soup she made me.

At 1.44pm, a private number rang me, a woman asked “is that A, you put a note thru the door last night” she said “I rent the cottage on a month to month basis and this is all a shock to me” I said “nothing compared to the shock that I and my son had, a complete stranger moved into my house lock stock and barrel” she claimed “my contract is with my solicitor, I cannot remember when I moved in, maybe around 6 weeks ago but I've not got my diary to hand to check and I don't know who drew up the contract because I don't have a copy of it here ” “I was told the place was up for rent thru a friend of a friend” I asked her “are you a personal friend of my husband's” she said “no, I don't know him at all” now I knew for certain she's a liar because my eldest knew all about her as soon as I read out her name during my visit to the cottage and told me that she and his dad go mountain climbing and go to restaurants. She told me “the house is up for sale and I'm given 24 hours notice of any viewings” I knew nothing about any of this. She said “I pay €300 per month by crossed cheque into (and she called him by the name that only I and close friends get to call him) bank account” I said “so you do know my husband well then because only his close and personal friends get to call him that” She changed the subject and asked me for my solicitors details, I told her “I will give you no such thing, I know your name, I know MY address and you'll be getting an immediate letter from my solicitor” She said “I'm sorry for all this shit” and hung up on me.

She rang me back after five minutes, I knew she'd probably been on the phone to him or gathering her wits, she apologised again and told me “the coverage is poor in this area and I know nothing at all about all this shit, I rent places all the time” I said “I suppose you get permission normally but didn't in this case” she said I'm moving out in December because I'm buying my own place in Drumlish. I told her “you'll be moving out much sooner than that but I appreciate you calling me but I don't appreciate your lies. The whole conversation was heard by both Brid and my youngest.

I gave Brid a massage then I walked home with my youngest, my head was in bits and so was my ankle.

I walked to the local shop with youngest and he found €50 lying in street, he bought us shopping with it. I made us a big fry up and called my eldest down for it but he told me “fuck off” because he'd been awake all night.

I was supposed to start a new course today but got a call to tell me it's been cancelled for one week, I am gutted. I was so looking forward to getting out of the house. I'm having real trouble doing housework and shopping and having to use crutches to bring anything back to the house. I now get down the stairs on my bum because I cannot walk down any more. P from FLS rang me. I told her about all that was happening, she said you know what he's like and advised I take the legal route to have him dealt with, she said he can only get away with so much and told me to try and stay strong.

I rang the solicitor. I told her about the tenant in the cottage and how I and my youngest could not enter the family home because he's changed the locks but we got in anyway. She dictated a letter over the phone “to be sent to the other side immediately, eviction of the woman, copy of keys and the contract, half of all rent paid to be sent to you, and the house put immediately on the market and the Judge will be informed of his behaviour”

I rang the agency I trust and spoke to L and told her about the tenant and the ex’s latest antics. L said she knows A. K. because she used to work with her and that A was always terrified and asking constantly “what if I meet a man and the spouse is my client” L said A is a Domestic Violence Support Worker, how fucking ironic is that. I told L “I'm fucking raging, A.K obviously knows the law regarding family homes, she clearly knows the swine well enough to be calling him by the name only me, his mother and his brothers call him, yet she lied thru her teeth about that, she clearly knows he has children because all our belongings must still be in the house so how on earth could she have put herself in that position at all” L asked did I want her to call A on my behalf but I said no, she would then be straight on to the ex and no doubt our whereabouts would then be known by him. That A. K. is a fucking liability and should not have the job she's got.

I had a dreadful nights sleep with constant pain in my foot and ankle. I keep having painful muscle spasms. I had physio using a sonic machine which took away most of the pain and I was given new crutches then taught how to walk properly on them. I have to go back in a week’s time.

Del, the social worker rang me. I told him all going on re: my visit to family home, all our belongings been moved, the locks changed and some woman renting the place without my knowledge, signature or consent. He said the ex was walking a very thin line because what he's done is illegal. Tell me something I don't bleeding know. I ranted to him about C Social Work and told him something should have been done re my first complaint about everything my eldest had to go thru instead of them just listening to the ex’s lies. Del agreed something should have been done but it's not his jurisdiction so he cannot comment. I said you are supposed to care about kids. I told him I want to return to education because I was only two weeks away from my exams in the UK and I found a PLC course and have signed up for it, he told me it's illegal to leave your eldest home alone all day. I went fucking ballistic, absolutely fucking ballistic. I reminded him it was illegal, all the abuse, the abandonment and the starvation my son went thru at his fathers hands and no one gave a bollix then even when it was reported by me and I need this education so I can get work and get us out of the poverty the ex is ensuring we all suffer from, my fucking son is now 6ft tall and has no trousers that fit him because I have no money to buy him any. Del said he was just quoting the law, I said the law is a fucking ass but I had to withdraw my college placement so no education and no socialisation for me. BASTARDS.....

The London solicitor emailed me, he said sorry but we cannot make International calls. I emailed back saying because I'm now in Ireland and going thru the court system here and I need to cancel all divorce proceedings in London. The ex and his by now 3rd solicitor have kept trying to get all maintenance proceedings thrown out here in Ireland because they are claiming proceedings in London re divorce are at “crucial stage” which is total bollix, lies and games. I cannot believe the ongoing cruel tricks and mind games of that mental head case, it wasn't not bad enough giving me a life of hell for eighteen years, he's now fighting me thru the courts at every step, his ongoing neglect and abandonment of his boys will be paid for one day. He is a monster and we are well rid of him. And what the fuck are solicitors doing lying thru their teeth. Do they not have to swear on oath like us mere minions, I never met as many liars in my life that are legally trained.

ESB sent me a letter threatening to cut me off in this house because they claim I'm in arrears of nearly €500 in the cottage. I rang them at 9.55am, I told them this was now my 7th call to them, the bill is for the cottage which had been put in my name without my consent and I wasn't even in the bloody country and I can prove it. The woman said she will send the bill to the occupier of the cottage, she said the cottage electricity will now be disconnected. I don't know what the fuck is going on. I sent all info to B. M my solicitor.

I started counselling and I'm seeing P again from F.L.S, she said I'm not ready for anything in-depth yet and this is crisis counselling to help me thru current difficulties. It was very nice to be told that I have a fantastic personality, great strength and character and of will and survival. If only that would sink into my tired brain.

What a mess I'm in at the moment. I feel trapped. I cannot access the education I want because “it would be illegal to leave eldest home alone” it was okay for his father to leave him whole weekends home alone tho. It seems men can do whatever the fuck they like. I cannot get any kind of a job here, the village is so small that family and friends are employed first because they all know one other. My eldest is far too damaged in spirit to go to school. My youngest is amazing but showing signs of resentment. I'm feeling alone and lonely and sorry for myself. I have no spare money at all, my kids need clothes and shoes and winter coats. I have for once in my life got absolutely nothing for them for Xmas, my sons said they are Atheists (god love them) and said they do not care, but I bloody do and so should that bastard that sired them. I hope he rots in hell and never finds a days happiness.

That swine had the cheek to tell me on the phone “on a scale of one to ten all eldests problems stem from being abandoned by his mother” as if. It was my eldests choice alone to stay behind and only that was down to that swine splitting the family down the middle, yet when my eldest needed me I returned for him. I gave up everything as did my youngest, at least my kids know who comes first with me, they know they are loved and they know that the swine does not give a shit about them, he never has and he never will, all he did was use my eldest till he no longer needed him and he had no contact with my youngest at all until I shamed him on his website into doing so.

I chatted to P about how I felt. I told her because I'm an emotional, wear my heart on my sleeve wreck and what you see is what you get person that I always react immediately and I would rather be seen as “the fucking psycho bitch” than a cold, cruel, vindictive love no one, emotional retarded bastard who cannot be trusted or depended on for anything, he would get you hung with the lies he tells and I will NEVER let anyone get away with lying about me. She said “you are loyal, warm hearted, genuine, a carer and not a user of anyone and I wish you cared less about what he said to people who don't matter” I told her “all I have left is my pride and my reputation and I will be damned if he takes that from me too”

Lovely M the Education Welfare Officer rang me, she said she would call to the house tomorrow to discuss home tuition for my eldest. She said he will get 9 hours per week but it will take a while to set up. She asked me “how are you getting on with Del” I said “his philosophy seems to be leave the school for the time being to take the heat out of the situation and he reminds me of a Jack Russell dog, all bark and no action but he's okay as long as I don’t let him walk all over me and he now knows that's not an option in my case” M is a lovely, down to earth girl, I can talk to her about anything. I told my eldest she was coming to house and he agreed to talk to her “if I'm awake” which is fantastic. My eldest has awful insomnia at the moment.

I'm getting worried about my youngest now. He has slept in my bed three nights in a row. I know it's freezing and I have the electric blanket but it feels like the equivalent of a child wetting the bed, which means something is worrying him. I will have to wait and see if he wants to talk about anything on his mind. He's a fantastic boy and doing great at school now.

God, please give me strength to cope with everything.

I rang the solicitor, she had no reply to her letter telling A.K. to get out of the house. She said “do not fret about it because I will inform the judge on Dec 13th” I bet she wouldn't be saying that if it was her house. I rang F.L.S and spoke to P, she said “it’s plain and simple, just call the Garda, it's your property, she's in house illegally” So I rang the Garda for almost two hours, ringing both Garda stations in the area and no one answered, it's just as well it wasn't a matter of life and death.

I googled A. K's name and found her work number. I rang and asked for her, I explained who I was and got told “hold on” then I was told “she's in a meeting” then I was told “she's left the building” just like fucking Elvis eh!! I asked the person on the phone to take a message and pass it on to A.K for me. I said it's an emergency and A needs to call me.

She rang me after an hour, my eldest recorded every word I said on his phone and saved it on his computer for me. I know she's a lying bitch as to what she'd told me previously about not knowing my ex so I was taking no chances of her lying about anything I was going to say to her. She appeared very concerned asking “how did you get my number, how do you know where I work, I consider you contacting me this way as intimidation, I know you were in the cottage last Friday” I was polite up till that point then said “off course I was, it's MY bloody house” I read out to her the email I've written for her, she got in a panic then, she was worried I now had her email address, she stayed very quiet as I read it out, I told her “if you're not out of the cottage by Friday I will come along with the Garda and personally evict you and I still want a copy of the keys, of the contract and proof of any rent you are paying” She wanted my word that she would never hear from me again. The cheeky bitch, in our house, surrounded by our things and she feels intimidated. She ain't seen nothing yet. BITCH.

I could scream the place down. I went for a walk, it's pissing down with rain. Here I am worried sick about my boys having little on a daily basis and me having fuck all for my sons Xmas and she, a woman's support worker for a Domestic Violence Agency is paying my soon to be ex husband €300 per month in rent for the cottage that I've not given my consent nor signature for her to do so and he also gets London property rent plus his wages, the wicked, evil bastard of a man and that stupid cow should know better. The fucking audacity of them. She is living under my roof, in my house, sleeping in my bed, using my kitchen and my toilet and the cheeky bitch has the audacity to tell me she wants my word that she will never hear from me again. Stroll on, there is not a cat in hells chance will I do her bidding.

Whilst I was out walking and thinking and hobbling on crutches I heard a cat cry constantly under a car, the tiniest kitten I ever saw was on its own, the poor wee thing was soaked, I knocked on a few doors trying to find its owner but no one answered so I popped the kitten into my coat and took it home with me and it would not stop mewing. Only when my eldest came down did he see and tell me the kitten had a bad leg so the wee thing must have been crying in pain. I got a vet's appointment for 5.30pm, the poor wee soul had a greenstick fracture and was given an injection. I was charged €30, FFS. It's absolutely freezing outside so I doubt it would have lasted the night under that car. I called her Willow.

Brid my new friend rang me, she's working and wanted me to go down and keep her company. I had a good night of laughter and joking, I've missed out on a social life for 18 whole years.

M, the Education Welfare girl came on Friday, my eldest hadn't slept but he agreed to stay awake to talk to her, she told him he had three choices, go back into school or Home Tuition which they will fund or Mum giving home education, there was no chance of me ever doing that again and none of this answered any of my worries over the no socialisation for my eldest. I told M once eldest had caught up with his sleep then he and I would have a proper chat about it all and I would let her know his decision.

The kitten peed all over my bed, yuck. My youngest, bless him brought me breakfast in bed because my foot and ankle was really killing me with pain. How lovely is he.

I chatted to my eldest about the choices M spoke about, he decided to go for the funded Home Tuition “as long as any tutor is not a prick” this will leave the door to formal schooling open in case he decides to go back one day. He needs to get seen by the doctor who then will sign forms for this to happen. We’ll go and see the doctor on Monday.

A reply at last from that swine’s solicitor, claiming that my solicitor B. M knew all about the tenant and that three letters had been sent to her about it, he went on to say that due to my conduct and harassment of the tenant that the ex is reducing maintenance. I fired off an email to my solicitor B.M asking what the hell was going on and I want copies of everything because I'm obviously being kept in the dark.

The very next morning in the post came a bundle of copy letters from the ex's solicitor that I've never seen before or even been told about. It looks like as soon as the last court date was over he moved A.K into the cottage and everybody knew about it except the very person who’s permission, consent and signature was needed, MINE, they are all a shower of bastards.

A letter at the very back of the bundle was from my solicitor to the ex's solicitor stating: “Re your correspondence, I can confirm that all letters from you are passed to my client” - utter bullshit and lies. I hate liars.

I sent an email to my solicitor demanding that she tells them what she's written is not true because I will not be made out to be a liar by anyone. She replied the next day saying “I agree the other side appear to be out to seek trouble against you” What the fuck is she on about, she lied that I was receiving all my ex's correspondence from his solicitor when I did not receive any such thing. FFS she could have just said sorry, I messed up, I took my eye of the ball and it won't happen again but no, nothing of the sort was written. If I can't trust my solicitor to tell the truth, who the hell can I trust? She advised me not to say anything and said she will explain all to the judge on the day. This is a disgrace. I rang N at the agency I trust and she said it's all ridiculous with the solicitor and what did I want to do, my reply was, there's nothing much I can do as no documents will be given back to me until the solicitor has been paid and I have no money, they have got me by the short and curlies. All I can do is hope and pray that truth and justice will prevail, he's lied about me, he's lied about our kids, he's lied about his income, but he will look anyone in the eye and say he's not lying, what a total mind fuck he is.

Both me and my youngest have caught a nasty bug, we have painful heads and painful muscles and now my youngests tonsils are inflamed and puss filled, god love him.

Xmas is 4 weeks away and I have nothing, absolutely nothing. I need a miracle and they are in very short supply. My poor kids. I have bills coming out of my ears, I cannot afford oil to heat this house, we are walking around with duvets over us. That was another total fucking humiliation. I hate asking anyone for anything, the house is fully furnished but had no duvets on the beds, N convinced me to swallow my pride and go and ask the Community Welfare Officer for help. V. C. a horrible bitch of a woman, told me “Ah god love ye, can’t help, if it was your own place I could help but because your renting I can't” I had to walk out of that place feeling like a piece of shit on her shoe with tears rolling down my face. C my lovely friend and old neighbour gave us the duvets of her beds after ringing me up to see how we were and caught me upset so after I explained to her, she brought the duvets from her own house out to us. I will never be able to repay all her kindness to us.

I can only afford one bag of coal per week and that only lasts for two days, there is no back boiler so the whole house cannot be heated. What the fuck has happened to us and how can that swine get away with all the finances he has hidden, he had €490,000 go thru his sole bank accounts and not a penny did he give to me to call my own except when I left him and living in private accommodation in London swallowed that up quickly. I believe that man is the psychopath he always called me and my eldest, he has no conscience at all. The Evil Bastard. His whole family are warped, even his Mother is twisted, sending my eldest Xmas and birthday cards but gave my youngest nothing, so daddy learnt how to divide and conquer from his own mother.

All I want is to be able to get the basics we need, I do not want diamonds, designer clothes, just the fucking basics in life. The kids do not complain at all but I so want them to have something on Xmas day. When I think about all the years I provided mounds of presents for them and now I'm reduced to complete and dire poverty. I keep praying to anyone’s god to help me get enough money to cope, to just give them their first Xmas without their father a happy one, they so deserve it after all the shit and drama they have gone thru. I just want a break from all the stress, stress kills and it will get me in the end. I need to stay strong so that evil man’s ongoing cruelty and mind games and neglect do not drag me down, it does not matter that he does not want to be a father, he should just pay up and fuck off and leave us alone, they at least have one decent parent in me, that’s all they ever had anyway and I'm trying my best to stay strong for them but this is so tough and I'm only human.

My youngest is still feeling ill, his cold is now on his chest, I will take him to the doctor tomorrow.

I'm hardly sleeping at all, the cold keeps waking me up, the house is like an ice cube, I checked on my sons. My eldest was fully clothed but my youngest was stripped and I touched his shoulder, he was as cold as marble. Jesus Christ I have got to do something about this, I would love to meet the ex and knock seven shades of shit out of him for doing this to his own flesh and blood. All I want is the maintenance he's court ordered to pay, half the house because it's legally mine to have, then he can go and fuck himself. I sent him an email telling him what I think of him leaving us living like this. The wanker that he is.

Brid dropped into the house to see me, she is a lovely girl. Then C rang me. I was lucky when I met these friends.

I'm in a bad way spirit wise, everything looks bleak, we need heat, food, clothing, shoes, coats and money.

C rang, she asked me what I'm getting the boys for Xmas, after a while I told her I cannot get them anything at all, the swine of an ex is not paying what the court ordered him to. She told me to find out what they would like and she will get it for them, she said we all need help at times and you can one day help me. She said she has one condition only, that I have to keep it to myself and not tell the boys. I know my eldest wants a guitar and my youngest wants a DS, she said leave it with her. C is such a good friend but I'm mortified and I hope I can re pay her one day.

Court Day
I've not slept at all. I've been sick and now I have got the runs with nerves. Why is he fighting this continually. N came to get me and drove me to the court, my belly flipped as soon as we got to the area, there was no sign of him.

N got us into a side room away from the packed out foyer. B.M the solicitor arrived, she told me the ex claims I had €37,000 from him and handed me a copy of his Statement of Means which did not add up at all. B.M told me we would not be seen by the Judge till after lunch so N took me to the local hotel for a cup of tea. On the way out I saw his car and my dog was in it, she barked like mad on seeing me then started whining when I went up to car window. I tried the door, it was locked, the poor dog. I asked N “why the hell has he brought my dog here” she said “why do you think, it is all done to rile you” I couldn't eat so I just had tea. B.M handed me €120 and said “its maintenance” so why was I only getting it now. I've lost count of the weeks he's missed paying and left us in the shit.

Back into court and we went straight into the Judge. I nearly died when I saw the ex. He looked old, ill, and haggard. N was allowed to come in with me and told me “the way you see him now means the rose coloured specs you previously wore when it came to him have come off” He took the bible on the stand and swore on it, how it did not burst into flames I don't know. He was very nervous and that made me happy because he would not be able to bully anyone here, he proceeded to come out with the biggest bullshit I ever heard in my life, “my wife spent money like water, I have the receipts but haven't got any with me today” his solicitor then shouted “she squandered all the money she left with” the Judge then said “it looks like he is very good at squandering money himself” his solicitor then stated how I'd been harassing the tenant and I was so incensed I forgot my own nerves and shot my hand up to speak. I told the judge “I seem to be the only person here who knew nothing about any tenant, I only found out when I travelled to the family home and found I was barred access because the locks had been changed, he moved into the family home one of his many online women without my permission, my knowledge, my consent or my signature” I told him about all the missing money from the ex’s accounts, that even his current Statement of Means didn't add up, the judge read his statement of means then said to me “I know he's lying, you know he's lying but my hands are tied without up to date Bank Statements” he then asked the ex why he was renting a two bed apartment then he answered his own question by saying “for the kids I suppose” again I shot my hand up into the air but B.M waved me down and spoke herself telling the Judge “he does not see or have contact with his children because the eldest child suffered deprivation at his father’s hands” the ex raised his eyebrows at this. The judge ordered him to pay €140 per week. His solicitor tried to make a big deal about me making a complaint to A. K's work place. He said “she's now scared and will not return back to the cottage” Good, I'm pleased about that and if it makes her think in future especially with the work she does for women like me then I hope she's learned a very big lesson.

19th December
No maintenance arrived and I was in pure panic mode, the bastard, the rotten bastard. I rang the solicitor and got told nothing had been handed in. I sent him an email and a text and got no reply, the bastard, everything will be closed until the first week of January and we have nothing. We have FUCKING NOTHING...

Brid, my friend came round to the house and handed me a hamper that her pub collects for the poor every year and I was in tears at her kindness. N rang the solicitor to make them contact the ex's solicitor directly about nothing being paid, he is one twisted bastard. N rang me at 4pm and said she just found out he's now paid the maintenance into my solicitors office and they will get it sent by swift post but I might not get it in time because Xmas post holds up all post. I had such a headache with the stress of it all. He knew exactly what he was doing. It is just badness.

N came out to see me the next day with a Xmas card and there was €100 in it, I was shocked and delighted, she asked me if I wanted a lift into town but I was still waiting for the post to arrive, this woman has been a god send to me since I first contacted her from London before my return, she gives me so much confidence in myself, she tells me I'm an amazingly strong woman with a great sense of humour. She said she would see me after the New Year.

Swift post arrived, thank you god, there was €490 cash inside with a hand written note from him addressed to my solicitor. Not a word of have a happy Xmas to his sons, not a Xmas card either, he stated on the hand written note “I cannot afford to pay the full amount of maintenance so I'm halving it to €70 per week” which he's not allowed to do because it's breaking the fucking court order and he stated that “€300 is for the boys Xmas” I rang N straight away and she said he's crazy and knows exactly what he's doing because everything is now shut down for Xmas. My rent is €108 per week and keeping a roof over our heads is the most important thing and my rent is based on the maintenance I'm court ordered to receive whether I receive it or not and I have three weeks rent to pay totalling €324, this is a fucking nightmare. I put €50 each for the boys on the mantelpiece and was left with €66 plus what N gave me. I had to make the best of it for my sons sake, at least we are free of him as N said. But we aren't because he's still in control of whether we eat, if we have heat, if I can pay my rent, he's still in control of every fucking thing as per usual. I hope his balls get gangrene and drop off.

C came to visit, it was so lovely to see her, she had a bag of clothes for me that she no longer wears because they do not fit her and because I've lost so much weight she thought they would fit me, I now also have a coat to wear. She left the Xmas presents she got for the boys and I wept so much at her kindness that she cried too.

Xmas Day
My first Xmas in 17 years as a lone parent, it's lonely being me, a big smiling face for the outside world and crying inside, I've not had any chance at all to heal from me leaving him. It's the first Xmas for my sons without their father, not a text, not a call, not an email did he send them. I woke up at 5am, I heard my eldest up and called him into my room, I asked him to go into my wardrobe and get me something behind the clothes, he got the guitar, he was very surprised and happy, bless him, we spent ages talking, he said he'd been awake since 4am. I tried to get my youngest up but the poor soul said no because he was freezing and said there's no point anyway. I told him there was small gift downstairs for him so he got up then, I got eldest to hide the DS in his pillow and he told my youngest to search, my poor lovely baby was so genuinely happy and surprised, it made my eyes well up with tears. I owe C so much for her kindness, they would have had nothing without her and I owe that man a punch in the fucking jaw to have stitched me up like that money wise knowing it would affect the kids and at Xmas too.

I was so angry that I wrote an open letter to a separated father on a parenting board and got many replies. I also sent it to him and to his “online bitch” B. I doubt he would have shared what he did to his wife and kids with all these women. Writing that online letter did make me feel better. I had a mixed bag of emotions today, I felt such a failure as a mum unable to provide for my kids when I had done every other year of their lives, I felt sadness at being alone, I had laughter and tears but at least we were all together and my sons were fine. My eldest wanted his Xmas dinner early and he wolfed it down, he said it was fantastic,high praise indeed, he went to bed early because he was shattered having been awake since 4am.

My pal D and his son C sent us a Xmas card with their voices recorded on it, it made me laugh my head off, he wanted us to meet up and go out with our other parenting website mates for New Year's Eve but I told him not to depend on me going anywhere because I've never been out on new years before and I wouldn't want to leave my boys and they had nowhere else to go. I hate New Year’s Eve at the best of times, it always makes me sad and this will be the first I've spent alone in all these years. D deserves to go out and get himself a lovely woman and have some fun for a while, he's a great dad and a good mate to me.

30th December
My eldest woke me up early. He was talking about the rights and wrongs of the death penalty because Saddam Hussain got hung at 3am.

I went to the post office to collect my weekly Lone parents. I could cry, it's means tested and the social welfare have calculated that I'm getting court ordered maintenance of €140 per week so I'm not entitled to anything more and I have to pay rent of €108 and then keep the three of us on what is left which is €105. No one will listen to me that I'm not getting what the fucking court ordered.

I'm convinced my ankle must be broken because it’s not getting better and the pain is torturous. I'm still on crutches after 3 months, the x-rays were clear of any break tho, how long does it take for torn ligaments to heal. I wish to god something could go right for once.

I got pains in my right ovary and was scared shitless. I had to have an operation before in the UK to remove an ovarian cyst but there is no one to mind my sons if that needs to happen again. I went to the doctor who told me it would need further investigation but I know that meant an operation so bugger that because I have no one to have my sons for me if I go to hospital.

31st December
My sleep pattern is up shit creek. I've been awake since 2.45am, the weather is dreadful, it's freezing cold inside the house and out of it. Brid invited me down to her house for the New Year because she's having a party.

What did I do this year

I left the ex after 17 years. I left my eldest with his father as he refused to come with us. I moved to London with my youngest. I got very ill with stress. I landed in hospital with migraines and palpitations. I started college and met some lovely people who became friends. I found the ex on various dating websites, I pretended to be someone else when he asked me to come back to him. I found out exactly what he thought of me and how he talks about me. I had to quit college two weeks before my exams to return to Ireland for eldest. We got left to rot in the cottage once again. I met N who is a blessing to us. I re met P who helped me during those awful times re my ex. We moved to S. I've been to court 3 times about maintenance we're not getting. I started a PLC course then had to quit because it was illegal to leave my eldest home alone. I tore all the ligaments in my ankle. The ex refused to pay what the court ordered him to pay. I got A.K evicted. I found an injured little kitten. I tried to be as strong as I can be given the circumstances for my sons.

I was fine till the New Year bells went, then I sobbed my heart out, and so did my youngest. My eldest was fast asleep so me and my youngest walked down to Brid's, she was so pleased to see us, she gave me a signed Xmas card from Ronan O Gara, I was thrilled with that because he's my idol. I had a few drinks then my youngest and Brid's son made me tea. We walked back home at 7.30am, I could not believe the time. As I hobbled home on my crutches my youngest repeatedly said “what” every time I spoke to him so I would say it again then he would tell me to stop repeating myself. I nearly got the hump with him about that as it felt like a husband reminder, a husband fuck with my head reminder. I did not like my youngest doing that to me one bit. But what a change going out after doing fuck all and going nowhere for the past 18 years. It did me the world of good.

My hopes for the New Year.

My eldest back to how he used to be and out and about again and happy.
My youngest to be happy and not so resentful about coming back to Ireland for his brother.
Money, because poverty is the most awful thing to cope with. I don't know how I did cope.
An education for me.
Learn to drive so we have freedom of movement.

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