Chris Brown and Rihanna to make a Love Duet

Thanks Deb

What wit, Barry!  I love it.

Mary

Glad you all liked it, thanks Amy and MAry

It was so damn witty of you, Barry, to put those songs there.  I tell you, they really emphasize the problem.  Years ago when my children were young, I used to live in an apartment.  Back-to-back, the neighbors who moved in next door to us had domestic violence issues. 

The first couple was a police officer and his family.  They fought almost every weekend, although I never saw either of them doing anything to merit such hostility.  I would gather my two kids and retreat to a bedroom to put more walls between ourselves and the dueling couple in case he shot at her and the bullets came through the walls!  Strange thing is that I never saw either of them with a single scratch!  I began to wonder where the punches went, so I spoke about it to the downstairs neighbor.  She told me the officer and his wife were not hitting each other so much as they were throwing funiture, dishes, and punching holes in their walls.  She told me not to bother calling the police when I heard them fight, because for that couple, fighting was foreplay.  She said I should consider that my apartment joined the fighting couple at the living room area whereas she lived in the unit beneath theirs.  Therefore, she heard what came AFTER the fights my kids and I heard - the lovemaking!

By and by, the police officer and his wife moved, and another dueling duo moved in!  I'd listen to the beatings through the walls, and this time, there was real abuse happening.  The woman would stay inside for days after one of their rows, I suppose she was healing.  One night, the woman came to my home with a bloody face and her two kids in tow.  She actually had a patch of hair on her shoulder that had been pulled out of her head at the roots, and her head was bleeding where the missing hair had been! 

She said, "Mary, help me, please.  I'm so scared of Leonard.  Let me call the police from your phone." I let her in and quickly shut my door.  She called the police and they came and arrested Leonard.  She was crying and I tried to comfort her and prayed with her while my children stood there, wide-eyed and frightened.  My husband just said hello to the woman when he came home and said nothing about the abuse.  I knew he did not like my getting involved, but how could I not? 

Just three or four days later!!!!  my daughter was playing outside and she came running in scared to death!  She said, "Mama, mama!  The devil is back, the devil is back!"  I stepped outside to see what on earth -- and Leonard was coming upstairs.  He smiled at me and said, "Hi, Mary,"  just like nothing happened, and he went into his apartment - with a key!  I waited to see what would happen - I did not know if I should call the police or not!  But guess what?  They were back together smiling at each other and hugging while they bar-be-qued that very evening.

A couple of weeks later, this woman was back at my door, bloody and asking me to let her and her children in to call and wait for the police.  My husband handed me a quarter, which I gave her without taking the chain off the door.  I told her to use the pay phone at the corner.

Mary

Pretty tragic, two couples lived in that same place, maybe the place was haunted

I cant believe the whole beating thing has been just swept under the rug. Well I cant even look at her anymore......as a role model she telling young teens if your man hits you just give him one more chance.