A pat on the back

This morning I called into the supermarket to get my yoghurt and blueberries ( I'm on a health kick since piling the weight on from not smoking..... I'm a new woman - well apart from the emergency chocolate last night after a stressful parents evening at school), anyway I bump into this woman I used to live near when the kids were little. I saw her a few years ago just before I married the freak and have sort of kept in touch via Facebook but not really cos of crazy family life, you know what I mean . Anyway she asks how I am and I say things are busy but good and she says it must be so crazy having all the kids at the weekends and then I realise that she doesn't know about what happened and thinks that I am still married to him. So I tell her about it . ( how do you explain it all in a couple of minutes before work???) I could have stood there for hours but I just said that he was a con man who lied to us all and left about 18 months ago and broke my heart. She started crying and said I didn't deserve it and was so lovely. She asked about how the kids handled it and I explained about giving them assessed at school and how I had a breakdown and how my mum came to stay and how I couldn't even make the kids lunches etc etc.....
It was like I was talking about a soap opera I had watched. It was hard. Anyway we swapped numbers and promised to catch up.
I walked to the car and sat and thought about what had just happened and really realised what a massive achievement it is getting away from these freaks and starting again. What with the abuse, the abandonment of us and our children, the future ripped away, the lies to figure out, the flashbacks, the smear campaigns, the financial costs, the sleepless nights, the lack of appetite...... It's amazing that we are able to function really .
I think we all deserve a pat on the back and a great big hug for getting through this.
I'm hugging you all right now........ WE ARE AMAZING!!!!!!!

xxx