A Salute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg

What a beautiful wedding we'd had! People came from the church, from my old neighborhood, from my parents' jobs and civic clubs. And the gifts! There must have been hundreds! Not bad for a girl from Southwest Atlanta, God's country.So during the week after my honeymoon while I was writing my acknowledgements, I asked hubby not to open so fast. I couldn't keep up. He snatched me up from the hassock I was sitting on and slammed me against a wall in my parents' home. 'Don't you EVER tell me what to damn do, bitch. Do you hear me? These are MY gifts!'



And did I mention that hubby had not one guest to attend the huge gala or send a gift, not even his parents? That should have told us something. Well, family members who weren't severely bitten by the love bug were probably in the know.For some reason other than low self-esteem I, a well-educated, well-read woman with enormous potential not only married down; but stayed in an abusive relationship for all of the wrong reasons. When I couldn't console the first of two babies, born 20 months apart, hubby slapped me, causing a physical confrontation with my brother. Hubby stormed out of my parents' home in SWAT and called from Carrollton 'If I have to come get you, I'm going to blow your brother's brains out.'One time my father, the coolest dad of them all, even went after hubby with a gun. I remember my mom saying 'Look what you made your daddy do. He hasn't been like this for a long time!



God freed me and my warped mind when my children were both babies. Thankfully they have no recollection of the fact that I was ever married, a fact I had to explain repeatedly when they started school, and all the other children had two parents.



Last month Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was instrumental in the Supreme Court in upholding a federal ban on gun possession for people convicted of all forms of domestic abuse. I wanted to thank her personally, on behalf of all battered people stuck in bad situations; and I can spot them a mile away. She has no idea how many lives she has touched and possibly saved from a sure death. In her ruling she said that 'Firearms and domestic strife are a potentially deadly combination nationwide.' If you don't want to access the statistics on the internet, then just watch the nightly news.I commend Associate Justice Ginsburg. I live because of God's grace and the certainty of my family's support and belief that I would soon, in less than 4 years, return to my good sensibilities. If you want to hear my story and how I overcame it, especially if it will help you, just send me an e mail.



Peace!

Bank of America Rocks

The unthinkable happened to me at a Bank of America avail machine. I thought the problem could never be resolved.

The first bad news I received was that the car I'd inherited from my father was in need of repairs. Hint to the wise: don't let car repairs pile up. Thankfully I had a little savings put away for emergencies, and after work I made my way to the nearest avail machine. Being ripped off over the Internet has left me extremely paranoid about using a debit card for anything other than cash withdrawals.

This particular Bank of America is not as well lit as I prefer, but I wanted to get the cash and leave my car at the overnight drop-off of Team Toyota in Lithia Springs, Ga. I requested $800 and, as I was retrieving the cash, the machine clamped down on my fingers and shut entirely! When I counted the cash I'd managed to grab, it came to $380 only, and my receit said, you guessed it, $800!

I was frantic. Since I carry no cell phone, I couldn't call the police. I don't even know if that would have been appropriate. My children helped me on the Internet as best they could, but all systems pointed toward calling customer service the next day.

After a sleepless night of praying and lots of it, I called Bank of America at 7am. Associate Ron said not to go to the bank, but to call back at 8:30 and speak to a claims specialist. By this time I'm thinking and verbalizing 'SOMEBODY is gonna give me my money!'

When I got through to the claims specialist, I explained my demise to Kimberly Clark. She was unusually enthusiastic about helping me to resolve the problem, and I was impressed since I work in customer service, too. After several minutes she said, 'I see that you went to our bank on Buford Highway and..........I see that the money was snatched back into the machine!' What a relief. She assured me that my account would be credited in 2-24 hours.

And it was. I would be remiss if I didn't let people know that there are people working in customer service who care. As far as I'm concerned, Bank of America is top notch.

Peace!