When I ended up on the street, I lost the desire to live. Years later I realized that it had actually been a blessing.
My husband threw me out, and the will to exist vanished. After many years I saw that it was the best thing that could have happened to me.
I married for love, never foreseeing the trials life had in store. Following my daughters birth I put on 17kg, and everything shifted.
My husband began to demean me, calling me cow and pig, no longer seeing me as a woman. He compared me to his coworkers wives, saying they were beautiful while, according to him, I had become an animal.
His words cut like knives. Later I learned he had a lover and made no effort to conceal ithe talked to her on the phone in my presence, exchanged messages, and my daughter and I became invisible.
I wept each night, with no one to confide in. Im an orphan, have no family, and my friends drifted away after I married. Knowing he could act with impunity, he started beating me. My daughters cries irritated him; he shouted at me to silence her, threatening to throw us out.
I will never forget that day. He came home from work and ordered me to leave the house. It was near dusk, raining. With a suitcase and my daughter in my arms, I stood on the street, clueless about where to go. He didnt even let me gather our belongings. While I tried to grasp what was happening, a taxi arrived, his lover stepped out with a bag and entered our flat. I only had a few coins in my pocket.
My only recourse was the hospital where I had once worked. Luck was on my side: a nurse friend was on duty and let us stay there for the night.
The next morning I went to a pawn shop and sold the crucifix chainthe sole heirloom from my mothermy earrings that he had given me before the wedding, and the wedding ring. I found an advertisement from an elderly woman, GrandmaMargarida, who rented a room on the outskirts of Lisbon. She became like family to us. With her looking after my daughter, I managed to find work.
Having no education, I started wrapping meat at a butchers shop and, at night, cleaning stairs. Later a client for whom I cleaned her house offered me an administrative job in her company, with a decent salary. Thanks to her, I entered university, studied law and graduated.
Today my daughter is in college, we own a threebedroom apartment, have a car, and travel abroad several times a year. My law practice is thriving, and Im grateful to fate for the day my husband put me on the street; without it I would never have reached this point.
Recently my daughter and I decided to purchase a plot outside the city to build a country house. We found a site near town. Imagine my shock when the gatekeeper turned out to be my exhusband, and behind him stood his former lover, now considerably heavier. I wanted to tell her everything Id kept inside, but I only met her gaze. There he wasa drunken man with a protruding belly and debtsthats why the house was being sold. We stayed silent, then I called my daughter and we left.
GrandmaMargarida still plays a part in our liveswe visit her, bring sweets, help her. I will never forget the hand she extended when I needed it most, nor will I ever forget Helena, my former boss, who gave me the chance to believe in myself and succeed.
