Well, I've just gotten word of some news that has hurt me terribly. Basically, I've been told by my aunt of her husband's last assault upon her and her children, and in the end she had me weeping and trembling with anger. Let me give you the backdrop to the story.

My aunt, a bipolar woman with a degree in law-turned artist, married a German man she met in Texas 10 years ago. She notices the man tends to drink and yell, but she gets over it, and produces two boys, who are now 8 and 6.

A couple of years pass, and things take a dramatic turn. He starts to deprecate her at everything. He calls her names, he yells at her, he mocks her. He even beats her at times. He gets into arguments where at times the poor boys get on their knees with tears running down their faces and chests begging their father to stop hurting their mother.

The man also becomes a sick alcoholic. He'll drink a fucking 6 pack almost daily, and he frequently staggers home drunk. When he does this, he gets my aunt out of bed, drags her into the kitchen and screams bloody murder at her, using every bit of filth and horror he can conjure.

Now, he doesn't even let her leave the country by herself. She used to come over every few months to visit, but prior to this Christmas, we hadn't seen her in 2 years. During the time we spent with him, he seemed pleasant and funny, but we did notice he sometimes walked out of the children's rooms, to when I entered I'd find them sobbing quietly.

He left on the 5th, and all was fine and dandy. Not for long, and this time, I think he went too bloody far.

He came home drunk the 6th, and when my aunt asked where he had been, he grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her violently, while screaming the most utter atrocities at her, and he even spit on her. My aunt told me that at one point, she looked over her shoulder to see her two boys watching the altercation.

They had urinated themselves and were on the floor in fetal position bawling, begging their father to stop.

My aunt told this all to my grandmother, who in turn told it all to me. Apparently, my aunt is once again on the verge of having a mental breakdown, and she doesn't know what to do. None us us here have a very good idea either.

Now, she has a prior history of getting into abusive relationships. She was previously married to a Swiss man, who, when she moved to Switzerland, went berserk. He didn't let her leave the house, nor watch tv or talk to others, save my family.

Luckily, my family conjured a plan. A friend of my father's arranged a flight out of Zurich, with a bunch of friends of friends along the way to help her. She snuck out the house at night, got lifted by a family friend to the airport and given the passport, and she got the hell out of there. The bastard sent her flowers, chocolates and love letters to win her back, but she ignored him, and we haven't heard of him since.

But now, the things occurring are exponentially worse, because not only is she being hurt, but her children as well. The amount of mental traumatization being inflicted upon my aunt and her children is unfathomable. Totse, how do can I help my aunt, a frail woman with children living in a foreign country.

Well, obviously I can't physically do anything. In reality, it's more of a matter of how can I help her help herself.

Get them Steve Wilkos tickets.

Sadly, until your Aunt is truly tired of what she is subjecting herself to, there isn't anything you can do. You could get her out of there again, but just as in the past, she will find another abuser to attach herself to. You're dealing with the same kind of mental sickness that pervades the alcoholic, drug addict, gambler, nymphomaniac, and other obsessives. Until she herself wants this to end once and for all, all solutions presented are temporary patches at best.

Promblem is, I don't think the time can be afforded for her, especially with that kind of man. She's on the verge of a breakdown, and has recently started to take meds again. If she forgets to take em for a couple of days, I think it's pretty much game over for her and the kids.

Oh, and he's cheating on her. He has about 3 women he's screwing on the side. One is Romanian, and the other two are German.

The biggest problem is that she still thinks she can change him.