Domestic Abuse Survivor Looking to Fly Free

Julie Peck Start Date: Sep 14, 2024 - End Date: Jan 13, 2025
  • France
  • Sweden

My Travel Story

by: Julie Peck Start Date: Sep 14, 2024 - End Date: Jan 13, 2025
After a lifetime of living with bipolar disorder while being subjected to constant verbal, emotional, and metal abuse, first from my father, and then from my now-ex-husband, this summer the dam finally broke for me. When our younger son graduated from high school and his father spent all morning verbally, mentally, and emotionally savaging me because I was 10 minutes late getting out of the house to leave for the ceremony, I realized that this whole time, it had been domestic abuse. Yes, I was late - but that was immaterial. One does not treat other human beings the way he treats me. And so, I am both scared and empowered on the edge of this new life I am embarking on. Now that both of my sons are settled, it seems to me that the most important thing is to get out of town.

This is a bit of a strange request, as you'll see. I have an opportunity to go to France for two and an half weeks to be with some very important writers (I am a writer) in a part of the country that is central to women's empowerment - where they study about Mary Magdalene. But before I can go, I have to repay a debt to my ex - he helped to put the down payment on a car for my younger son, which I'd said I'd do. I need to get the money back to him immediately or he will use it and twist it over my head and there's no way my head will be clear to go. I have a significant amount of money coming in myself, but  not until the end o f the month.

the other trip I would like to take is to take my boys to Sweden. My late mother's whole family was from Sweden and we still have relatives living there. I am an only child, and my sons are not close to their relatives on my mother's side of the family, especially now that she is gone. Our Swedish roots were very important to us - they're very important to me - but now there's just me here to tell the stories. I would like the boys to see the land where their ancestors actually came from  - theyare only four generations removed from Ellis Island, after all - and meet their relatives with the hopes that it gives them some sense of grounding in today's fractured world. I'd also hope it might give them a greater connection with the fact that we were all immigrants once, and that we must have empathy for those who seek to come here to make a better life today.
  • France
  • Sweden