A bittersweet story
Full disclosure: My sister was an abused wife, so I am by no means unbiased.
The Oregonian ran a heartbreaking story about a war bride who had literally disappeared. She had come from Iceland, had been badly beaten, and had left her husband. While she was in the hospital, he put the kids in an orphanage, and they were adopted. She literally disappeared after that, and her family never found her, although they kept looking.
A new story this morning has a happier ending. She quietly changed her name and made a new life for herself with a new (nice) husband and three more kids. She had tried to get her kids back, but it was too late.
It’s sweet in that she had a happy life after all, but her family lived with years of heartbreak, and the first two kids had not had as happy of lives as we might wish. Probably they never escaped the shadow of their horrid early lives, and their adoptive home was apparently not what we might wish.
I think we still have a few more steps to go to set free the victims of domestic abuse, and make the abusers the ones who have to hide and feel ashamed.