Mary (not her real name) was withdrawn; she was a pale shadow of herself. We were shocked when we saw her again. Like day and night was the difference in what we saw in her and the Mary we knew before, her countenance was trying to tell us a story but we could not hear, nor see nor fathom the depth of her despair. Eyes sunken and darting everywhere as we tried to converse, as if she was looking for hidden shadows. She sensed fear lurking in every tiny movements in the room.

John, her young son clung on to her, whimpering and scared, unusual for a kid of six, when everyone his age would be full of energy like an energizer battery, unstoppable. By no means was John skinny, but he was not what a normal child would be, curious, inquisitive and unable to sit still for more than five minutes. He was pale and placid.

Her room was shockingly dirty. Messy with layers of dirt everywhere; the carpeted floors were caked with leftover food and spilt sweet drinks and her bed linen must have been unchanged nor laundry for weeks if not months. Overpowering stench of stale urine and feces was present and she was oblivious of them.

You would imagine I was talking about a mother and child in a poor and famine ridden African or Asian country. But no, that was in London, England and Mary was a nurse! How could that be? How could a highly trained professional and an educated person live like that?

My wife was Mary's course mate and colleague. We all came from the same country studying and living in a foreign land then. She was intelligent and vivacious. Sociable, friendly and she knew what she wanted in life. Having been recently qualified as a nurse, her career was about to take off. She met and married a man who was adoring and attentive during their courtship. It was her dream to marry such a loving and seemingly perfect gentleman. She moved out of our area after marriage and soon we lost touch with each other. Then we heard news that she was expecting a child. We were glad for her. We were wondering what support she would be having from her husband or friends in the area where she was living. We had no idea.

The years passed by very quickly and one day a note in an envelope was passed to my wife in the hospital ward that she was managing. The note said Mary wanted to see us. It was a plain note, simple and straight to the point giving us an address. That very weekend we decided to pay her a visit. We simply had no idea what would greet us! We simply had no idea and was in no way prepared for the shock.

Mary’s husband was a loving man, extremely loving. So loving to the point he could not bear having any man near Mary. She thought that was so romantic having so much attention from the man she loved. So she willingly gave herself to him whole heartedly and obeyed his every wish because she felt so ‘loved’ and so ‘protected’. She would not know that possessiveness would turn into a nightmare. Soon she could not leave the house without him. That means she had to give up her career. Occasionally he would lock her in when he goes to work. He said it was for her protection. She had no second thoughts initially.

When little John was born after a year of marriage, her husband became a very loving father. He was as ‘loving’ to John as he was to Mary. He would not let John out of his sight. He wants to protect both Mary and John, so he locks them in. He would shop and stock up all the groceries and food that the mother and child would need. They were not starving. They were well fed. They had everything they needed. Three years into the marriage, Mary began to yearn for some social interactions with friends and neighbors again because that was her nature. She loved company. But he would not have it and wanted to keep her all to himself. Mary would reason, plead and even begged for his permission. He would not budge and insisted on his own way.

Reasoning soon turned into nagging and quarrelling. That was when he began to hit her if he did not agree with her or could not reason his way out. By then she had no circle of friends nearby to call for help. She cannot call anyone as the phone was cut. Mary realized she had left all her friends behind during her dream years of romance, alone in a world of her own. Knowing that no one could help her, she gave in to his demands for sex, accepting his violence, and obeying his every wish. She soon lost hope and the will to make decisions. Despair sets in and her world became dark. Days and nights merged into one long tunnel of timelessness.

Years passed before she got a glimpse of remembrance what it was before she got chained by a monster. He scribbled a note and begged the postman from her window to take the envelope addressed to my wife in the hospital that both of them were trained in, hoping that my wife would still be around.

She was. We went. We broke the lock to the door and literally forced her to come out of the house with us, packing whatever filthy belongings Mary and John had into our small car and fled. We took them to a Woman Shelter. The Social Services were involved and they were in good hands. That was one day in our lives when we made several decisions and have never regretted ever since, even after thirty years.

Mary regained her dignity and the child grew in confidence. Normalcy, whatever that is left in Mary and John were regained. Today Mary, divorced, is still working as a nurse. John is doing well, as well as he can be, after graduating from university.

I do not normally advocate divorce, when there is any possibility of reconciliation. In this case, divorce was the only way out. If not Mary would have been killed.