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Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

Over the Shoulder Boulder Holster

182 replies

ItsGraceAgain · 13/05/2010 12:51

How are you?

OP posts:
iso · 21/06/2010 16:54

Over, hope your weekend was ok.

I've put these links up for you. I know you don't see what's happening to you as 'real' violence or 'as bad' as it is for other women, so you might not find yourself in this or may be you'll find yoursel nodding with familiarity at some of it.

They're bitesize pieces that don't go into much detail but I know you don't have much time at the moment.

www.weaveinc.org/themes/weave/files/images/Fact_Sheet_-_Traumatic_Bonding.pdf

http:/ /www.weaveinc.org/themes/weave/files/images/Fact_Sheet_-_Stockholm_Syndrome.pdf

dizietsma · 21/06/2010 16:57

Fixed the links-

Traumatic bonding

Stockholm syndrome

iso · 21/06/2010 17:38

Thanks Dizietsma

FlyMeToDunoon · 28/06/2010 18:39

Any news?

IsGraceAvailable · 28/06/2010 18:55

I haven't a clue how long it might take to put an escape plan together when you've no money or trustworthy friends, can't rely on your family and the police are corrupt. If you're reading this, Over, I feel sorry for your plight and hope you are succeeding, step by step. xx

If I win the Lottery, I'll be heading your way with a bag full of Rand!!

FlyMeToDunoon · 28/06/2010 18:57

I was just hoping she was ok.

IsGraceAvailable · 28/06/2010 19:06

Me too

Dollytwat · 29/06/2010 18:31

She has posted over on another thread about DV.

OverTheShoulderBoulderHolder · 29/06/2010 21:25

iso - Thank you for those links you gave me (thanks too dizietsma for 'fixing' them) - I was quite shocked when I read about Traumatic Bonding - it ticked a lot of boxes for me and gave me a deeper insight into my situation - thank you.

iso · 29/06/2010 21:28

Hi Over,
(there isn't a waving emoticon but that's what I'm doing).

I saw your post on the other thread and it was good to hear you're ok.

OverTheShoulderBoulderHolder · 29/06/2010 21:31

Grace - "If I win the Lottery, I'll be heading your way with a bag full of Rand!!"

No Grace, bring Pounds! I can exchange them for Rands - 1 pound is worth R11,50! Can you imagine...? I'll take you on a sight-seeing tour of SA (we'll be like Thelma and Louise), before you head back to the UK with me in your hand luggage.

OverTheShoulderBoulderHolder · 29/06/2010 21:33

(I'm waving back iso)

iso · 29/06/2010 21:46

Cross posted with you I think. I'm glad the links were useful.

Grace has said it really. Enough of us recognise just how complex it must feel for you right now.

OverTheShoulderBoulderHolder · 29/06/2010 21:49

I am finding myself in that horrible peaceful lull again (after the threats of violence and rape). H is away on business for 2 nights, so I am able to think clearly again. I am going to Home Affairs in the morning (after I drop my dcs off at holiday day care) to apply for passports for all of us (me and the dcs) - don't know why, because we don't need them, but I suppose I want to know that I can leave the country if I need to. I am really struggling with the idea though of leaving my house - the remains, of my little baby who died, is buried in my garden - I have already exhumed her once (when we moved here some years ago) - it was incredibly traumatic for me and I don't think that I can go through that again - but I could never leave her behind.

iso · 29/06/2010 22:13

Sweetheart, that must be painful and I'm so sorry she died. I know we don't really 'get over' the death of those we love, more we learn to live with the loss of them in some way.

I don't know if this makes sense but what's clear to me from your post is you'll never leave her behind. You carry her with you all the time inside your mind and heart. That's where you keep her close to you.

I don't underestimate how difficult it feels to leave home and all that's familiar. Even though what you're in damages you, at least it's familiar and I know the unknown can feel so bloody terrifying.

Great idea about the passports. As you say, even if you don't need them, it's good to know they're there.

OverTheShoulderBoulderHolder · 30/06/2010 09:09

iso - you are right - I do carry her with me all the time, inside my heart and mind - I do know that her soul is not in that little grave, but even so, her little body that I loved so much, is still there - It would be like a scene from a horror film if I had to get her remains out before I leave - and what will I do with it? I can't exactly take it to wherever I am going - at this stage I don't even know where I will be going - most likely it will be a small flat somewhere or a shelter - what then do I do with her? Sorry for sounding completely mad and weird and demented, but I worry about that.

Anniegetyourgun · 30/06/2010 09:18

OSBH, can you get her formally exhumed and laid to rest in a cemetery somewhere? You wouldn't even have to hide it from H if you thought up a good excuse. That way she'd have a permanent resting place and however much you had to move around or wherever you ended up you'd always know where she was.

OverTheShoulderBoulderHolder · 30/06/2010 09:34

Annie - she was cremated and the funeral home handed her remains/ashes to me in a little sealed coffin-looking wooden box - I buried it at the house that we lived in when she died, but dug it out when we moved to where we are now - I buried her again in our garden - that was 5 years ago - I do not know if the little wooden box has disintegrated by now or not - I can't bear to look. If it has, then it means that her remains are now part of the soil.

iso · 30/06/2010 09:41

No Over, you don't sound demented or weird. It sounds totally understandable.

What do you think to Annie's idea? Would that feel possible?

iso · 30/06/2010 09:42

Sorry, cross posted again.

Anniegetyourgun · 30/06/2010 09:53

Aww... Bodies do that though, we're only made of the same stuff that earth is when you get right down to it. I say "only", but it's amazing stuff really.

Y'know, my mother couldn't stand the thought of being "shut in a box" even after cremation, so she asked for her ashes to be scattered somewhere that meant a huge amount to her personally (a beauty spot she'd honeymooned in). My dad always said he didn't care what anyone did with his remains, just dispose of it tidily please and don't make a fuss, but anyway he too was cremated and my sister scattered the ashes where he had scattered my mother's years before (I believe she did tell him before he died that she would be doing this and I think it pleased him, though he wasn't the type to admit it out loud). So they weren't physically in one place at all, probably, but in another way, definitely in a symbolic way, they were free and together.

XH on the other hand used to say when I died he would have me embalmed and keep me in a corner of the lounge. I'm fairly sure he meant it to be either affectionate or funny rather than horrifying. Maybe. For my own wishes, I don't want to be "shut in a box" either...

There are so many worse places for a child's remains to be than blended with the soil of her home country.

Anniegetyourgun · 30/06/2010 10:02

God, I hope that doesn't make you feel worse, sorry

OverTheShoulderBoulderHolder · 30/06/2010 10:04

Don't worry Annie - the image/thought of you sitting embalmed in the corner of the lounge had me grinning.

NicknameTaken · 30/06/2010 10:49

Hi Over, have been thinking of you. I don't think it's weird about your DD's ashes. If the box has disintegrated, perhaps you could scoop up some of the soil and take it with you to plant a flower/tree in later on?

Annie, every time I see your username from now on, I'm going to picture you posting from an open coffin in the lounge.

Anniegetyourgun · 30/06/2010 10:56

I'm not dead yet you know!!!

At least, I don't think so... I suppose realistically I'd be the last to know.

He may well have meant it, actually; he has a horror of throwing anything away in case it might be useful or valuable at some unspecified future time (yes, it was hell to live with, since you ask). How his wife's corpse might have been useful doesn't bear thinking about.

ps Lovely idea NicknameTaken.

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