Two Time Victim of Domestic Abuse Turns Her Life Around

College.jpgMechelle Seals had very low self esteem and very little experience with men when she met her first husband. After a year of marriage, however, a fight ended in the man throwing Ms. Seals to the ground and threatening their four month old daughter with a gun. Her second husband verbally abused her, and was convicted of sexually abusing her mentally handicapped daughter.

She recently explained why she stayed with both of these men, what prompted her to leave them and how she has turned her life around. She says that the abuse in her first marriage started very gradually, first with little insults and nags, then accusations of infidelity. The first time he hit her, he had been drinking and she forgave him – she believed she could help him change. The second time he got physical with her, he held a gun to their child’s head and told her to get out. She managed to escape with the child. They eventually divorced and Ms. Seals moved to Florida to get a fresh start.

About ten years later she met and married her second husband. She still had low self esteem, and she fell for the man because he paid attention to her. Soon after the wedding, the man began verbally abusing her and her now twelve year old daughter, who has an IQ of 65. A few months later, the girl knocked on a neighbor’s door and reported that her step father had been sexually abusing her. Ms. Seals divorced her husband while he was in jail awaiting trial.

Ms. Seals has since enrolled in the Southwest Florida College criminal justice program. She hopes to use her experiences to help other victims of domestic violence. She says that her self esteem is very high, but she understands why women go back to their abusers; “We, as women, still have a sense of love for our abusers and that’s hard to shut off.” Find out more Ms. Seal’s journey to healing from domestic violence at Mechelle left two men who hurt her child.

If you are a victim of abuse, please seek help immediately and then contact our firm for expert, compassionate legal counsel.

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