because sometimes there IS such a thing as a geographical cure

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I mentioned last week that we had a visit from my friend Brittany. What I didn’t fill in was a little of her backstory. Brittany shared her story on a website called Violence Unsilenced, which provides an outlet for survivors of domestic abuse to tell their stories. If you don’t know Brittany’s story, go read. I’ll wait.

Ok, then. Now you probably understand why I want to go back in time about 20 years to rescue toddler Brittany and to kick her father’s ass. Actually, I’d be willing to kick his ass in present day too. Doesn’t matter. But more than anything, I wish I could spare her some of the pain and suffering that she’s experienced.

Here’s the rest of the story: Brittany currently lives with her mom, three doors down from the father who abused her. He continues to be a threatening presence in her life to this day, and she lives in a constant state of fear and anxiety. It’s a completely toxic situation, and she needs to get the hell out of there.

The problem is, despite having a job (two or three jobs, really, if you count the work she does at summer camps with special-needs kids), Brittany doesn’t have the money to move. And like a lot of abuse survivors, she is not the most adept when it comes to asking for help. So yesterday, Brittany’s friend Aman enlisted my help to set up a PayPal account on her behalf, without telling her about it. Well, actually, he set up the PayPal account. All I did was send direct messages to every single one of Brittany’s friends on Twitter who I thought might help us out.

And you know, the Twitter community is pretty amazing. Aman opened the account in the morning, and by yesterday evening, we had already raised over $500. And I had several emails from people pledging to give money as soon as they get their next paycheck. We decided to go ahead and tell Brittany about the account, since it was obviously going to be way too big a deal to keep a secret much longer. She was pretty shocked, and I think I might’ve made her cry a little bit. (It didn’t help that we were on a video chat on Skype, and I had Catie in my lap, and I was having Catie say things like, “Britty, move here!” Manipulative? Moi? Never!)

If any of you want to help Brittany out, the link to the PayPal account is . Even if it’s just a few dollars, it all helps. I just want to help my friend get to a place where she can finally feel safe, and where she can start to heal. Because absolutely nobody should ever live in that kind of fear.

7 thoughts on “because sometimes there IS such a thing as a geographical cure”

  1. I live about 2 miles from Aman and ChurchPunkMom. This is the type of friends they really are. They see a need and they do what they can to help. CPM shared Brittany’s story with me a week or two ago and I felt so helpless with how I can help. So, after they did this (since I’m currently broke and cannot donate) I was inspired to do something too! So, my 100th post is coming up. I tried and tried to get someone to do a review/giveaway, but I wasn’t able to find someone. I think God had reason for that. I’m dedicating my 100th post to Brittany. I’m going to be crocheting hats and sewing pillowcase dresses (as many as I can manage) to sell on my blog on July 13. All the money (except shipping costs) is being donated to Brittany’s cause to help move.

    So, hey, if you got some fabric you wanna donate, you can send it over, just drop me an email!

  2. I donated. I wish I could do more. My heart is breaking for her. I read her words and it brought back a lot of unpleasant memories for me. PLEASE convince her to come to you. Once you’ve done that, please help her find a good therapist to work through all of this. It really WILL help.

    I’m just in tears over this and so worried for her now.

    I’ll donate more when I can.

    Jo

  4. When she’s ready to move, I’ll buy her plane ticket. Seriously. Just let me know.

  5. Lisa, I love your idea. If I was at all crafty, I’d totally send extra fabric to you. But I can’t even thread a needle, so I’m afraid I’m useless in that area.

    Lauren, thank you. Really. Brittany is trying to move here to Raleigh, but she currently lives in South Carolina. It’s about a 4-hour drive from here, so she won’t need a plane ticket. Just a U-Haul, which is why we set up the PayPal account. If you can contribute anything to that, that’d be awesome.

    Thanks to everyone for your amazing generosity. Brittany doesn’t seem to understand that she deserves this, but we’ll work on making her believe it once she’s escaped her current living situation. (And Jo, yes, I will absolutely make sure that she finds a good therapist who specializes in child abuse.)

  6. Aha…silly me, thinking everything in the South is sooo far away. 🙂 I’ll hit PayPal next week when I get paid. Go, Brittany!

  7. Pleased to meet you!
    I figured I should get in touch since the lovely Miss B keeps singing your praises. 😀

    I’ll be giving as soon as I figure out which email address my paypal account is registered at! 😛

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