Lucia

Content warning: emotional and psychological abuse

Domestic violence can take a wide range of physical and psychological forms in an intimate relationship. Lucia’s husband worked hard, helped her raise her two boys from a previous marriage, and never hit her even once in their long marriage. But Lucia’s husband was extremely emotionally and psychologically abusive. He was controlling, jealous, and manipulating. He prohibited her from seeing family and friends. He wanted her to quit her job as a senior transport driver because it often required late hours. He accused her of being somewhere else at those times.

Eventually she couldn’t take his psychological abuse and the extreme limits he placed on her. She finally told him she wanted to leave the relationship. But her husband was adamant – he never wanted her to leave him and would rather have her arrested than see her “going out in the streets.”

Shortly after that, he did exactly that. Lucia’s husband called the police and told them she hit him so she would go to jail. His accusation was completely untrue, but it did achieve his goal of having her arrested. The police charged her the next day.

Thanks to financial help from her son, a neurology student at Harvard University, Lucia was able to move into a hotel temporarily while she sorted out her life. Not only had she been put out of her home, but she also had to prove that the assault charges against her were false. And then she lost her job due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Broke, desperate and scared for her 10-year-old son, Lucia didn’t know where to turn, until a friend told her about Casa Myrna. “Casa Myrna is my angel in this world,” she said. “I don’t know what we would have done if they didn’t help us.”

Within one week, Casa Myrna’s Housing Assistance Program helped Lucia find an apartment for her and her young son. She also worked with our Legal Assistance Program to renew her Green Card, which had expired, threatening her ability to work. For weeks, until she was called back to work, Casa Myrna helped Lucia to obtain emergency supplies, food and clothes.

Today, Lucia is secure in her new apartment with her young son, free to live her life as she chooses. Her older son, the “future neurologist,” visits often.