b"A Safe Harbor For The VoicelessBy Denise CashinLilly, a comfort dog at Serene Harbor.Photograph by Denise Cashin S ara thought she had found true love after a failed first marriage. Wed had our ups and downs like most relationships do, andactually broke up once. There were signs way before we got backtogether, but I didnt want to be alone, and ignored them.Sara ended up marrying him and endured the ongoing mental abusefor three years. He never physically hit me, but I was always buying pic-tures and sconces to hide the holes in the walls that he had made when hebecame enraged.Her husbands calculated words eventually destroyed Saras self-esteem.During one of his violent episodes, she'd had enough of the mental abuse.I told him to just hit me and get it over with, said Sara. I figured itwould be easier to deal with the physical hurt more than themental andemotional abuse. Continued on the following page gwww.TheNewBarker.com THE NEW BARKER 21"