A Cross-Country Trip to Begin Again

Theresa packed up her entire world into four small boxes, grabbed the hands of her two small children and boarded a Greyhound bus for the other side of the country.  Fleeing an abusive relationship, anxious and alone, Theresa took strength in her faith, her resolve and a patchwork of shelters and programs that would eventually lead to a new life in a Seattle home provided by The Homelessness Project. 

At 36, Theresa thought she would never leave her hometown.  But her dreams of a happy family life dissolved as her husband’s verbal attacks and mistreatment grew more threatening.  Cut off from her family and friends – like many victims of abuse – she dreaded his violent outbursts, suffering in isolation.  Finally, one night it was too much and she decided she had to leave.  “I grew up that way,” she explains, recalling the violence in her own childhood..."I didn’t want my kids to live in an environment like that,” so she broke the cycle of violence and despair.

One morning after her husband left for work, she gathered up her son and daughter, some clothes and a few photographs, and headed off to a battered women’s shelter.  The shelter staff gave her a few days to go over her options.  In order to have a fresh start, Theresa knew that she needed to move as far away as possible, “where no one’s hands could reach out” to grab her.  A fan of overcast days and the movie “Sleepless in Seattle,” Theresa decided to move to the Northwest.  She believed a “geographic cure” though drastic was her best hope.  As she says, “I had nothing to lose.”

The shelter bought her a bus ticket and called ahead to make sure a bed would be waiting for her and her children when they arrived.  Every step of the way, Theresa worried about what would become of her and her children.  She called the Seattle shelter from Chicago, from Montana and from Idaho.  By the time she arrived on their doorstep, “they already knew me,” she recalls.