Bellamy Young Instagram – I’m sharing a piece I wrote about my mom’s journey with domestic violence. It broke my heart over & over to write it (of course even more so to watch her live it), but if it helps even one person, then that’s all that matters now. I’m sending each of you so very much love. Tonight & always. Let’s try to take good care of each other. 💗❤️
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“My mom died at the end of 2023, right after her 83rd birthday. Which doesn’t sound all that remarkable — until I mention that she had been a victim of domestic partner abuse up until the year before her death,” “Scandal”s’ Bellamy Young writes in a guest column for the L.A. Times.
“Mom hadn’t exactly been lucky in love. She had already buried four husbands (cancer, heart attack, COPD, cancer) by the time she met This Guy, who doesn’t deserve to be named here. But Mom never wanted to be alone. It was her deepest fear. She would get the look I get when I talk about sharks.
She powered through her lack of computer skills and met This Guy online about eight years ago. We would joke that she had to import him from Tennessee because there were no good men left in western North Carolina. It was a long-distance relationship at first: She would cook for him at the house I’d helped her buy outside of Asheville, and drive to Tennessee to go to church with him.
Eventually, he brought his two cats and moved into Mom’s house. I’d watched her go through this phase with a new man a few times, bless her heart, but there seemed to be far less joy now. ‘At least he’s smart,’ she kept saying, as if to excuse his excessive drinking or unnerving silence.
The life she made with This Guy got smaller and smaller. She dropped out of her book club and her service organization. They stopped going to church. They no longer made plans with friends. After experiencing the drinking and fighting firsthand — or just the tense silence — people stopped coming over. Mom closed the door to her own cage and chose This Guy. Over life, over fun, over safety.”
Read the full guest column at the link in @latimes_entertainment’s bio.
🖊️ @bellamyyoung
📸 Najeebah Al-Ghadban/For The Times; Bellamy Young; Smallz & Raskind / Getty Images for The People’s Choice Awards | Posted on 04/Dec/2024 05:05:06
