“Get out, get out you bitch. Leave here and never come back you whore, you cowering, snivelling crazy old woman. How dare you come to this house?” George ranted on as he grabbed for Mary and swung out at her.

“If you come near me again I will shoot you!”

Mary shook as she looked imploringly up at her daughter, Lillian. Lillian was grabbing at her father pulling him back inside the house and trying to calm him down. At the same time she called out to Mary. “Don’t worry mum, I’ll come around to your place. Go home, I will be along as soon as I can get him to settle down. Just leave it for a day or two, please.”

Reluctantly Mary retraced her steps to the house she lived in. It was so rare for her to see her daughter these days. Her husband George had been living with Lillian and her husband for a while now and it meant that Mary was unable to see her or five year old Leonard, her Grandson.

For a while Mary collapsed in a chair thinking through what had just happened. What could she do, was there anything that could be done? All she wanted to was to spend some time with her daughter and her family. She wanted to see little Leonard as he grew up, not just these fleeting moments of time squeezed around times when her husband was no longer in the house, or when Lillian was able to get away.

This time, maybe this time, she should take the abuse to the police and see if there was any way she could get some help.

1903 ‘A TANTALISING TART.’, Truth (Sydney, NSW : 1894 – 1954), 1 March, p. 5. , viewed 14 Apr 2016, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article167896707

The newspaper article around this particular incident was a triumph of misogyny. The story accused Mary of bringing the incident upon herself because she went to her daughter’s house when she knew that her husband didn’t like her to be around. I felt that I really wanted to show the emotion behind her decision to go to the house. I also wanted to explore the outcomes that her initial decision, to move away from her husband, had had on family members.