"Do you mind if I have a seat ?"

Me and my sister were sitting at the starbucks (a coffee bar) enjoying a nice friday afternoon ( I work weekends, get some week days , like friday off ... sister is currently unemployed) when a 60ish woman came to our table and asked "Do you mind if I have a seat ?"

I'd noticed her around, doing the same thing with a previous woman, but nothing had come of it , no shouting or anything , so we let her sit at our table. It didn't take her long to start in on her sad tale of woe.

Her husband abused her, she didn't know where to go or what to do, a very sad tale. We advised that there were a number of womans shelters for such things , but no , she'd lose all her pretty things if that happened.
She didn't have any brusies or obvious marks on her , but my sister asked anyways , "did he hit you ?"

Dodged the question , and related to us the tale of how her husband called the cops on her , well yes she had blacked out and had a temper tantrum but it was all his fault he made her so mad. It was replent with details about the evil cops sneaking up on her , twisting her hand behind her back "I was just sitting there , honest ! " and dragging her down into the back of the police car. She spent 4 days at the royal ottawa , she relayed to us. All because he had a vendetta and could give a good song and dance to the cops and get her in trouble.

The husband showed up a little later. He was leaving. But , she'd hidden his cheque and he needed that. She was more concerned with what he had packed in his boxes, worried he might have taken her things. She showed no fear, only anger. She did not ask or beg, she commanded, she told him , she was going home and wanted to look in those boxes to make sure he wasn't making off with anything he shouldn't have.

As they walked away , I couldn't help but notice she was taller than him.

So... she was being abused.

And the first thing that comes to her mind is that she got arrested and stuck in the royal ottawa (a mental institute) because he'd made her angry enough that she'd blacked out and thrown a major temper tantrum.

The moment he'd shown up at the coffee bar , she'd transformed from poor little me to pissed off mama bear, just by the sight of him , he hadn't even said anything yet.

I keep seeing news articles about this "abused wife" syndrome. It ends with the wife killing the husband , going to court , and getting off scott free.

He'd mentioned he was only leaving for a week, but if he was smart, he wouldn't come back.