Dear Prudence,
I was abused by my husband for our entire marriage. He was an alcoholic with a hair-trigger temper: Anything from not making his hamburger the right way to losing the remote could make him fly off the handle. He didn’t hit our girls until they got older and tried to intervene. When my eldest was 14, she got knocked out trying to protect me, and my youngest ran across the road and called 911. The police came. My eldest had a concussion and a broken arm—in the hospital, she begged me to press charges against their father and go away with them. I didn’t. Child protective services got involved, and all attempts at reconciling the family failed. My daughters refused to see their father after this and loudly tried to provoke him every time we went to court. They both ended up staying with their English teacher until they graduated high school. I rarely saw them. They told me that I needed to choose, and I didn’t choose them. I follow them on Facebook: One went into the military, and the other is a successful translator. Their father died a few years ago, and they did not come to the funeral. I have since been in therapy and started rescuing dogs. I want to reach out to my girls again. I am afraid they will still be angry at me for my abuse and silence. Do you think there is any hope?