A Woman’s Long Road to Happiness

By Angela Hope Sandoval

This book “A Woman’s Long Road to Happiness” is just that, it’s a long road to finding happiness after a physical and verbal abusive life. For seventeen years of living in an abusive relationship she decided enough was enough. It’s a painful and inspiring triumphant story of a woman who fought to protect herself and her children from the abuser. She found her life’s treasures afterwards. There are many women who live and stay in an abusive situation for one reason or another. Life is a long road that comes with many obstacles and sharp winding curves which eventually takes you to a crossroad of making a hard decision as to which road you should take. Everyone’s abusive life story is different, some end up leaving and some never do. The greatest conqueror is to continue keeping the faith. When seeing the darkest helpless side of your life, never lose hope because he (God) will always have your back. The answers to prayers don’t ever come right away but in time the doors will open to be able to fly into another dimension that changes the mind or situation for a better life. I hope this book helps others that have lived or have had similar experiences and to say that there is a silver lining with a bright beautiful rainbow at the other end of the road.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9781796083750

Book preview

His Belief

HER LONG ROAD BEGAN AT THE

AGE OF SEVENTEEN (1974).

How can anyone find their partner or husband without dating? That’s a hard question to answer when having a strict father; No dating was his unwritten rule. Don’t bring anyone to this house unless it’s the one you will be marrying, he would say.

Angela knew her father, Josh, loved them and meant well; he only wanted to protect his girls. But being young, Angela couldn’t understand his extreme strictness. She understood years later, when her only daughter asked for permission to move in with her boyfriend. She was still so young; Angela was afraid to give her up to a man who she thought couldn’t meet up to her standards in making her happy. Angela remembered how her father must have felt when she had also asked the same: permission to move with her boyfriend. She understood why her father was strict and overprotective but didn’t understand his belief in No Dating.

Angela has a warmhearted and loving heart she’s a quiet shy person, always with a smile, she has long brownish-blonde hair, fair-skinned, slim and standing at 5’2". She is a caring and giving persona. Angela’s sign is Scorpio. A scorpion has a very powerful sign which makes her very independent, trustworthy, intelligent, extremely passionate, and has a forceful and powerful drive to succeed and amazing dedication, very loyal, strong instinct and only trusts her own gut feelings. She has a great capacity for kindness and a desire to do good in the world. But don’t cross her because she will never ever forgive or forget.

Her father was her idol, her rock, her everything. She wanted him to be very proud of her and her goal was to graduate to make his dream come true, even though she hated school. Her parents lived and married in Mexico. Her father (Josh) was a US citizen, born in Dallas, Texas; her mother (Faith) an immigrant, born in Mexico. In 1954, her father crossed to the United States looking for work in Austin, Texas. He stayed with Faith’s sister Kate, her husband Luke, and children.

When Josh found a job, he later sent for them. Angela was three months old when she was crossed over. Her mother, Faith, had a difficult time adjusting in a different country because she didn’t speak or understand the language. But later, she made friends that helped as interpreters, mostly with doctor appointments. When Angela was six, she was enrolled in the public school and only spoke Spanish. Then Angela was raised with a mixture of Spanish and English, more Spanish because of her mother. Her father understood and spoke the language to a certain extent.

Most of her mother’s and father’s relatives lived across the Mexican border. Her mother had two sisters, Kate and Vera living in Austin, Texas and a brother (Peter) living in Kingsville, Texas. Her father was the main person, the breadwinner, her mother a housewife, never worked in her life besides working her father’s farm fields. Angela had a good childhood with lots of love, moral values, and authentic family rituals. Her family didn’t have luxuries but had enough for what they needed.

Years later, in 1963 the family was complete, three girls (herself, Gracie, Emily) and two boys (Jason, Paul) living in Austin, Texas. Her family was an ordinary low medium income household. She remembers moving only six times in her lifetime.

Their home was a little house with two bedrooms, one bath, kitchen/ living room, no insulation. In the winter the house would be very, very cold. They used space heaters to warm up each room, but with no insulation, some winters were really cold (back then). It was hard for them to stay warm. They stood or sat around the heaters trying to get warm. Sometimes her father’s brother and his family would come from Mexico to stay with them, and that was harder, having two families in a small house. Her father didn’t make much money, so they couldn’t afford to buy another, nicer home with just his income.

It’s so strange that later in life when trying to remember her childhood she couldn’t. She could only remember certain things in her life. But her sister Gracie would remember everything of what they did and recall incidents with her. Angela lived in Austin all of her life, and she never gave it much thought to moving anywhere else. Austin was her home, her stomping ground forever.

She was the oldest of the five. Her sister Gracie was three years younger, but they were inseparable. If one got in trouble both would be punished, regardless of who did wrong, hard-belt punishment. Angela and Gracie weren’t really bad. They just liked to horse around a lot. Her father would tell them that whenever they were out in public, they needed to act decent and respectful. He didn’t want people to be talking about them. He hated gossip. He was a good man who never cursed, was honest and hardworking, never talked about anybody. He was the kindest person one could ever meet in one’s life, the kind who would take his shirt off his back to help others. Every night, he’d read his Bible in bed alone or sometimes they’d lie beside him listening and talking to him.

Josh’s first priority was his family and secondly their education. He believed that anyone could achieve great things in life by getting an education. Josh expected for each of his children to get educated; Graduate and succeed for a better life he would say.

She remembers one day walking home from school with Gracie. They were playing and horsing around, pushing each other off and on the sidewalk, out into the street. Their father was coming home from work and came around the corner of the street when he saw what they were doing. He stopped and told them he would be waiting for them at home. She and Gracie knew they were in trouble, and they walked home slowly, trying to prolong their consequences.

When they got home, their father was waiting with his belt (used a lot back in those days). He told them to walk over to where he was standing. They both walked toward him. He asked them how many times had he told them when they were out in public to act right? He approached Gracie, but she shuffled Angela in front of her so she could get the first hit, but Angela shuffled her back, and one of them would get the first belt hit. They would use the shuffle always, and whoever was the first they’d hold their hands in front of them so as not to get hit because when it came down it was going to hurt. Their father would tell them, Stop putting your hands in the way. And when the belt came down, the hit was so hard it left belt marks on their skin from it going right through their clothes. They cried and cried and learned their lesson, never to horse around out in public. And that was the last time they ever got whipped with a belt. Angela knew her father didn’t like using the belt, but he had to teach them a lesson. Later in life, Angela and Gracie would laugh and talk about the incident, the belt shuffle.

Angela’s father depended on her so much to help him when it came to any paperwork since he couldn’t read English. She learned at an early age to be responsible, and to be wise. She loved her father and was grateful that he pushed her to be strong and independent. One of her father’s advice to her was Never trust anyone, Always look and observe your surrounds/people, open your eyes, and he would use his index finger to pull his lower eyelid down to show her. And he’d say Never walk away or leave your open drink around anybody. A lesson to be learned and never forgotten.

She never liked school, but she didn’t have a choice, she had to do the best she could. In middle school, eighth grade, she met Hailey; they had some classes together and became good friends. She attended Garrison High School (1970) along with her cousin Cora who was like a sister to her. Their mothers were sisters. They were born in the same year, same month and were same age. They grew up together, spending a lot of time in and out of school. Angela rode the bus alone since Gracie was still in middle school. She missed her sister, but she at least had Cora to hang out with in school.

She never dated anyone or socialized much. She had some classmates who asked her out on dates, but she always turned them down. The only crush she ever had in school was one guy (Patrick) whom she had in some of her classes. He dressed very Western; boots and black hat. He was different from others, but they hardly spoke to each other. He must have liked her because out of the blue, one day, he asked her out and she told him she couldn’t, not giving him a reason. She knew she wouldn’t be able to go out with her father being the way he was. He continued asking her, and she always turned him down until he stopped asking.

Then years later her sister Gracie joined them in high school. They became the trifecta threesome (Angela, Cora, Gracie), very beautiful cousins. Cora was the first person to start them smoking (cigarettes), and after that, they picked up the bad habit. They would smoke outside during lunch around the building so they wouldn’t get caught. Cora started dating a guy named Ricky later in the school year who eventually became her future husband. Cora was the ring leader of the group. She was a daredevil and a carefree person. She and Gracie took chances at everything, never cared if they got in trouble.

One morning, Cora asked Angela if she wanted to skip school and go with her and Ricky to go mess around for the day. Angela didn’t want to go; she was afraid her father would find out and be really mad at her. Angela didn’t want to get in trouble, but her cousin insisted until Angela agreed.

They left the school campus right before the first bell. As they walked away from the building, they kept looking over their shoulders, making sure nobody had seen them and watched for any patrolling policemen or anybody who would recognize them. They walked along the railroad tracks away from the main streets. Angela walked behind both Cora and Ricky. She knew Cora wanted to spend time with Ricky, but she felt like three was a crowd and didn’t like the idea of being with them, but she was doing it for Cora.

As they were walking along the tracks, they saw Cora’s sister-in-law (Eva), and they didn’t know if Eva had seen them or not. They both knew if Eva had seen them, she would squeal on them, just to get them in trouble, because that was the kind of person she was, evil. Ricky bought them lunch at the grocery store (Lucky) close to the school. He also worked there after school and weekends. They ate their lunch in the park and spent the day there just talking. It was almost time for school to be over, so they headed back to campus to catch the school bus to go home.

But Eva had seen them, and she did squeal on them. When Angela got home from school, her mother was already aware of her not being in school. She had to wait until her father got home to find out what her punishment was going to be. He was furious with her. He told her he worked long hard hours and sacrificed every day for her to get an education and for her not to attend school was unacceptable. Angela felt awful and knew what he was telling her was true. He did work hard with long hours to give them what they needed, and for her to mess up, it was wrong. She should have said no to Cora. She hated to get in trouble with her father. But her father didn’t punish her. The scolding was bad enough. She swore to him that she’d never skip school again, and she never did. She knew her cousin was getting the same treatment or maybe worse. But Cora didn’t learn her lesson, she continued skipping and finally eloping with the guy. She only had one more year to graduate; she missed out on that.

Angela and Gracie rode the school bus every day until her father bought her a car, 1968 Blue Ford Galaxy. He had been teaching her how to drive since she was nine years old. She used to drive with him in the car around the park, up and down the small streets. She was so excited to have her very own wheels to drive to school. Then after Cora left the group, it changed. Hailey joined them, and Angela, Gracie, and Hailey started hanging out after school and weekends. Angela and Hailey became best friends afterward.

One day an opportunity opened for them to sell their property to the Enterprise Foundation. The Foundation was going to build a parking lot named The Venture. Angela’s father consulted with her on the sale, should they sell or not. He needed help with the legal paperwork because he didn’t understand them. She read the papers and told him it was a good move, the price given was a fair price, and if he didn’t sell, he probably wouldn’t get another chance to buy another house, unless he made more money, and that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. He trusted and believed in her. Angela was sixteen years old and very wise. The family sold to the Enterprise Foundation. The Foundation hired a realtor to help with the search of a new home. After looking at several houses, they finally found a warm, beautiful brick home, three bedrooms, one bath, central air-conditioning/heating with a big backyard in north Austin. She thanked God for central heating.

It was a hard winter in 1971. Snow was falling, and it was very, very cold. The moving was slow because of the snow. Not all the furniture was in yet. And the electricity (heating system) hadn’t been connected, but Angela, Gracie, and Hailey wanted to stay overnight at the new house. Their room had already been set up with the bed and some furniture. They had plenty of blankets. Angela asked her father if they could stay, but he didn’t think it was a good idea, but after much begging, he said it was fine. And Hailey had snuck in a bottle of wine for them to celebrate. They made themselves comfortable and drank, talked, and laughed.

Then Angela’s parents stopped in unannounced to check on them that night. They quickly hid the bottle under the mattress. When her parents walked into their bedroom, they looked like three scared crows sitting on the edge of the bed. Afterwards her parents looked around and then left, they laughed all night and had a blast. All three couldn’t feel the coldness of the house with all the talking and laughing they were doing.

Angela and Gracie continued attending the same high school. Many years later, her father held two jobs, a full-time (furniture builder) and a part-time (gardener) to provide for their needs. She loved her father with all her heart. He was her hero, her charming prince, her everything. After a couple of years (1973) in their new home, her sister Gracie started dating secretly. Their father never found out she was seeing/dating someone. They would say they were going to Hailey’s house, and Angela would drop Gracie off on her date. Angela would go hang out at Hailey’s house until it was time to pick up Gracie. Hailey’s mother was cool and really didn’t mind them spending a lot of time at their house. She also met Hailey’s father (Robert) later on, and he liked her a lot.

While Gracie was out, Angela and Hailey would go off to the movies or the mall or wherever until it was time to pick up Gracie. Hailey’s parents hadn’t met Angela’s parents yet, not until later in the years. Most of the afternoons after school she and Gracie would hang out at Hailey’s or sometimes join friends at the park. On weekends it was shopping, movies, or the park. And in summer it was outside hillside concerts, Tejano bands playing in the park; those were good old fun days. All three hung out through the whole school years and even after graduation.

The First Love

One weekend, Hailey called her to tell her that her uncle, Sonny Cruz, her father’s younger brother, was at her house and was asking about her. He had seen her picture on Hailey’s dresser and wanted to know who the girl in the picture was and what was her name. Sonny told Hailey that the girl was very beautiful and wanted to meet her. Hailey told him she was her best friend, Angela. So, Hailey asked Angela if she wanted to go over and meet him.

Angela hesitated then asked Hailey how old he was. Hailey told her