ROSEMARY
Rosemary was married with 3 children when her husband began to exhibit signs of alcoholism. She describes encounters with the police, hiding in the basement with her young son, and years of verbal abuse. "My kids don't remember him sober." She recounts these lost years with a sense of unreality, familiar to trauma survivors and wonders why she tolerated unacceptable behavior for so long. She describes the events that ultimately motivated her to take her children and leave the family home. Rosemary is honest and vulnerable as she expresses guilt around not leaving earlier. We discuss how alcoholism wounded her children and she shares her wish that she could have protected them from the pain. This is the story of one woman's heroic journey to break through the denial system of an alcoholic home and leave everything...striking out on her own to give her children a better life...a life where they no longer have to live under the tyranny of fear and shame.
