(1311)Hiding an abused wife

I have an old friend who believes that one day she would run an abused women's home. For a single mother who brought up one son with a good job in Singapore, she is now free to run her rooming house and live in any way as she is pleased. After all, her rental surplus is more than her simple needs. What her son sends her just goes into the bank in case there is a rainy day later.

This lady has a sister who was my next door neighbour for fifteen years. Let us call the neighbor Betty. Betty brought up three children with the help of her mum after her ex-husband committed bigamy. Now and then I see Betty having guests, one who was a cousin from Kedah; another who was a school friend from Penang. Living in a big city, even as neighbours we might not see each other for a week or ten days. Our schedules varied as she worked full time but I was a homemaker with grown children. There was one guest whom I did not meet but caught a glimpse of getting into Betty's small car. I just assumed it was one of her cousins from up north.

It was Betty's sister who met that guest somehow. The latter just run away from an abusive husband living in Seremban, about one hour by highway south of where we lived. For some reason, she confided in my friend. When Betty met the abused victim over dinner and learnt of her predicament, my good neighbour open her heart and her home to this person. Within the week, the stranger's family in Penang arranged to have the runaway work for a distant relative as a companion to an elderly woman. That way, she could hide from her abuser as well as save some money for a formal divorce. The episode ended happily as the abused ran to Johor, four hours away southwards before Singapore.

Having lived a rather sheltered life, I was shocked to hear that 1. strangers rise up to help a complete stranger. 2. Betty managed to time her comings and goings for a whole week so as to protect the privacy of the abused. 3. No one suspected anything, most of us were used to her having guests off and on as she was a most hospitable person and cooked lovely meals. 4. Until today, Betty never uttered a word of that incident to me.

In case you were wondering, around that time Betty's sister was studying in a Theological College and rented a tiny room near the college. There was no way she could accomodate the stranger without her landlady's consent.