UNBEATABLE
SARAH

Slowly, through the scars,
the broken bones, the daily terrors,
she realized she had to save herself
and the two boys.

B Y   D O N N A   F E R R A T O

UNBEATABLE SARAH

Photography by Donna Ferrato / Written by Alex Chadwick

She was 13 years old, home-schooled, a tender-hearted, book-loving tomboy who loved exploring the woods and streams near her rural Tennessee home.

He was 19, working at a local garage, where he watched her visit the corner market…the way a wolf might study a grazing deer. In weeks, he was telling her stories about his girl troubles. His last girlfriend was 14 when she got an abortion, he said. ‘She killed my baby”, he cried. Soon, he was sneaking through her bedroom window at night, and, at age 14, Sarah Augusta was pregnant.

‘You’re a woman, now,’ B——told her, and he took her to his family place, a too-young mother. And he kept her there – away from everyone and everything she had known.

The next dozen years were a small town tour of hell. Sarah learned everything ugly, wrong and illicit about relationships. Isolated from friends and family, beaten, raped, humiliated, she had two sons with a man who was a master at manipulation and dominance. I’m not violent, he would tell her…you make me this way. Still a child herself, she wondered what was real.

Slowly, through the scars, the broken bones, the daily terrors, she realized she had to save herself and the two boys. She broke away to freedom two years ago. She found a man who rejects violence, who saw his mother beaten, and told himself he would not follow his father’s ways. Today, Sarah and Tommy have little money, difficult days, many challenges. But Sarah’s life is no longer brutal, and her children don’t see and hear their mother being tortured…as though that is a way to teach a child to live.

Between 3 and 10 million children will witness domestic violence
in this country this year.

Child Witness to Violence Project: Facts & Myths

More information:

The Tennessee Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence

© Donna Ferrato and Facing Change: Documenting America

%

Approximately 63% of homeless women have experienced domestic violence in their adult lives.

Donna Ferrato

RURAL TENNESSEE

Sarah and her 10 year old son, Taylor are finally free of the daily beatings, humiliations and threats. Fears? They are never over.

Pin It on Pinterest