Michelle's Story: One Woman's Escape from a Lifetime of Abuse

By Shelley Chase

Michelle's Story is the shockingly true biography of a woman who was born into a family who didn't want her. Her mother started abusing her when she was only a couple of months old. As Michelle grew older, her step-father began to sexually and physically abuse her and her brothers and sisters. It is not surprising that Michelle took the first opportunity to leave this family, marrying at a young age. She did not escape for long, though, as her first husband, and later a second husband also abused her. When she finally takes her daughter and sneaks away, she thought she could start a new life. Unfortunately, her daughters were later also abused. This is the story of a woman who finally had the courage and the faith to break the cycle and escape a lifetime of abuse.It is Michelle's hope that her story will encourage others who are trapped in abuse to seek freedom.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shelley Chase
• Release date: Apr 24, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301698936

Shelley Chase

Shelley Chase lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, four children, and one grandson. This is her third biography, and first published book.

Book preview

Michelle’s Story

One Woman’s Escape from a Lifetime of Abuse

As told to: Shelley Chase

Copyright Shelley Chase 2012

Smashwords Edition

The following is a true story. Only the names and places have been changed.

Chapter 1

The Escape

The heat of the day was finally ebbing away, giving way to a dark coolness around midnight on May 15, 1978. Beside her sleeping ex-husband in the small double bed, Michelle lay absolutely still, wide awake, afraid her rapidly beating heart would wake him. He was a very light sleeper, sometimes stirring even when the cadence of Michelle’s breathing changed. Tonight, though, he was snoring loudly, his 38 Browning automatic close by on the table next to the bed. Out in the living room, his brother Harold also was snoring from his bed on the sofa, his gun resting inches away on the coffee table.

Moving as slowly and quietly as possible, Michelle lifted the sheet and carefully slid her legs over the side of the bed. She sat there for a second, listening for any changes in the snoring. When none were detected, she very slowly stood up, paused, and then carefully moved away from the bed toward the bathroom, avoiding the creaking place in the middle of the room. As she reached the door, her legs started to shake. Her heart was beating so loudly in her ears, she was sure the sleeping men could hear it. If they woke up and found her sneaking around, she knew, with complete certainty, she was dead.

She slowly closed the door, praying that it would not squeak, and sat down on the toilet. Quiet tears streaming down her face, her body trembling violently, she tried to pray silently in her head, but no words would come. She simply repeated, over and over, Oh, God! Oh, God! Oh, God! Gradually her heart slowed a bit, her trembling eased, and she felt a quiet certainty and peace. She stood up, grabbed her toothbrush and the jewelry box that rested on the bathroom counter and opened the door that led to the hall.

Michelle moved slowly and carefully down the hall and pushed open the door of the second bedroom. Five year old Kimberly lay peacefully sleeping, the light from the full moon pouring into the room from the window and onto her face. The window was slightly open, but Michelle knew that she could not open if further without a horrible shriek of metal against metal. The old windows were very stiff in the old trailer. The window was not a way of escape.

Kimberly’s pink plastic piggy bank full of pennies lay on the dresser. A stuffed bunny lay on the floor next the bed where it had fallen after the child had drifted off to sleep. Michelle gathered up these items and added them, along with her toothbrush and the jewelry box, to the pillowcase she had hidden in the closet two days be-fore. Glancing at her still sleeping daughter, she picked up the pillow case, took a deep breath, and began the slow, absolutely quiet journey down the hall, across the living room, past her snoring brother-in-law, and to the front door. Carefully, she opened the entry hall closet door and gingerly picked up a laundry basket, piled high with clothes. She then turned, and took a full minute to open the front door. Easing her way out, she left the door almost closed, but not quiet latched. A little faster now, she stepped out onto the grassy front lawn and went to the VW bug, parked on the other side of her husband’s Chevy. The car’s door was notoriously squeaky, so she opened the passenger door furthest from the house very slowly, and jammed the pillowcase and the basket onto the front seat.

Pausing, Michelle considered her next step. She would need to somehow awaken Kimberly, without her making any noise, and carry her out of the house, all the while not disturbing the sleeping men. Kimberly was not going to make it easy. Her father had spoiled her rotten, and she was prone to tantrums and fits whenever she didn’t get her way or felt put out by anyone or anything. Praying for help from God, she made it back to the front door, opened it slowly and stepped inside, almost closing it behind her, lest the fresh night air startle Harold awake. The silence of the trailer roared in her ears. It was absolutely quiet. Creeping back to Kimberly’s room, she put her hand gently over her daughter’s mouth. Kim’s eyes opened and immediately went wide with fear. Michelle put one finger over her own lips and shook her head quickly. The little girl reached up into her mother’s arms. Despite her affection for her father, after all she had seen and heard, the child was also ready to leave.

Michelle was able to carry the child back out to the VW without anyone waking up, her constant prayer in her head, God, don’t let them wake up! Let me make it! After placing her daughter in the back seat and closing the door, she paused, looking back at the trailer she had lived in for the past nine years. Nine painful, damaging years. Nine years too long. Only her