…after 28 years of abuse
By Lakhram Bhagirat
For almost a decade, Omawattie Alvin or Ann as she loves to be called was the subject of constant physical and verbal violence at the hands of her then husband. But one day she said enough was just enough and left the relationship with her two children in tow. A few years later, she would meet the sweetest man possible. He fathered her four other children and treated her the way she wanted to be treated, but little did she know the future would be worse than what she had to endure with her then ex-husband.
Ann met Lionel Thomas in the early 90s and she said for the first few years they led a peaceful and happy life, but everything took a turn downhill around 1997 when he got involved in drugs. She explained that he first started smoking marijuana and then graduated to crack cocaine. At the time, the couple had been rearing cattle and gradually the animals began disappearing and the abuse started.
At first, it was the constant pestering and demand for money to purchase drugs, but late 1997 the physical violence started. Many times while Ann toiled in the market as a fish vendor, Lionel would just show up and begin assaulting her while taking away whatever money she had earned.
“He get this demanding way that you got to give him what he wants and he does beat me like bad in front them children and thing. You know many nights me does have to go away by my friend or his sister to hide from the licks,” she recounted.
Ann, 47, spoke to the Sunday Magazine on Wednesday, the day after Lionel’s funeral, and she said despite his constant abuse and addiction, he was a wonderful man. She remembers hiding from the beatings, but refusing to leave, because “I had six children and how you can take six children and go live by yourself”.
The couple’s life progressed and they constructed a small house on a plot of land that belonged to Lionel’s mother where they lived together until 2016 when the abuse intensified and Ann decided to leave. She got a place to rent within the same Babu Jaan Village in Port Mourant and continued life.
Jogging her memory, Ann says she remembers everything like it was yesterday explaining that after a time, Lionel started to “trip out” and would always find her and threaten to kill her. However, she never reported the beatings and threats to the Police, because she always thought he would mend his ways and they would go back to being the family they once were.
“One time he chopped me pon me hand. But everyone been saying that he was a good man because they would get him to do anything for a little money. So people are saying that he was good, but towards me he was abusive. He was a good person, but the drugs in him made him a different person.”
For Ann, the 28 years she spent with Lionel felt as though they were seven lifetimes that ended when she left him. But he still followed her and the threats were intensifying, so she decided to get the Police involved and he was charged several times. He was even placed on a bond to keep the peace which he violated by continuing to threaten Ann or beating her. The threats of murder were increasing as the days progressed and on June 21, 2018, Ann saw the light at the end of the tunnel, but refused to follow it.
“I went out and the afternoon when I came home and he start abusing me and he start the fighting and my daughter came in and tried to part. He try to buss meh neck, meh throat and me get away and then he run behind me and after that he came back and burn the house down. After he see people start to come, he run through the bush…because people were not paying attention to he. They were paying attention to me, because I was bleeding and my daughter was crying out because she is pregnant and so, and they take we to the hospital,” she detailed.
Ann would receive four stitches to her neck while her pregnant daughter would receive two. Fearful for her life, after the incident Ann went into hiding while Police looked for Lionel. They later found him hanging from a tree.
Now Ann spends her days trying to rebuild her life. She is looking for a plot of land to relocate the house she built with Lionel since some of his family members are now blaming her for his death. With the exception of Lionel’s eldest sister, all other members of Lionel’s family were silent during the years of abuse and now that he is dead, they are out to get Ann.
“I feel bad because I know that I am free and he can’t do me anything, but my children them are without a father because of his stupidness. His behaviour now leave his children them without a father. I feel a way about that, because at least he could have moved on with his life. He didn’t want to move on with his life and now his family is blaming me. I knew him very well and if he had catch me after this, he would kill me and kill heself; that was his intention and he always tell me that.”
She attended his funeral on Tuesday despite some objections from his family because they would have spent almost three decades together.
At the end of our chat, I asked Ann whether she still loved Lionel or had any feelings for him. Her gasp was audible as she thought about the answer to give me and after some time, she said she had no feelings for him. The love was lost when the abuse started and any residual feelings died when he did. (Guyana Times Sunday Magazine)
