:)
I hope you are not upset with me, as I did try to show you that I understand how you must be feeling and if he was that bad, then it may be time for karma to take a swipe at him.

I am elderly and what I was saying is that in my day, if I met a young lady I was keen on and she privately told me what she has endured, I would sympathise AND do all I can to help rebuild her self-confidence. However, if she wrote about it to a woman's magazine, despite using an alias, and aired her grievances, I would probably withdraw...for I would worry that if for some reason I do not meet her expectations, she might let the world know how I failed her.

We used to say that a gentleman never kisses and tells; but at the same time, we also expected the details of our relationship to remain private.

Of course I am talking about normal relationships, not something like yours where the one is an abuser - even if it is because of his own fears and low self-esteem.

Times have changed, it seems to be so rare that I find young couples (I am not talking about you anymore, just sounding off) feel that respect for their loved one is important - just that their loved one respects them, also, as very few feel it is worth making sacrifices for building a good relationship (the only way it can happen, even if times have changed). No wonder such a few marriages last.

Some day our great-grandchildren may land on other planets and do things that we cannot imagine, but, certain basics, of what we need for our relationships to be strong, will still be recognisable. Have you ever wondered why it is we demand and experiment for new ways to evolve our relationships as couples, and yet the basics of what we expect from friends remains the same and we do not even think of changing them?