How did my wife not go crazy?
My wife had the most horrible life of anyone I've ever known. She was:
Abused by her parents and taken away to live with her aunt and uncle
Raped by her step brother/ cousin and had to apologise for crying rape in front of her church (he later admitted to "consensual" sex with her when she was 12 and he was 17).
Ran away from home at 14 to get away from the abuse and met a man who forced her into prostitution
Got pregnant by a convicted child molester and had his baby when she was 15. Gave her baby up for adoption.
Got a boyfriend at 15 who during sex decided to forcibly fist her. Sex is still painful for her.
Got gang raped by several homeless men.
Got off the streets and found a boyfriend and married him. He was very abusive and did a prison term for giving their baby shaken baby syndrome.
While he was in prison, his mother introduced her to one of her friends, a used car salesman who was fucking 55 years old who made her have sex with his friends. Who would try to get their 17 year old daughter in law hooked up with an old man like that? And she (the mother in law) was a county jailer.
She then married a jobless loser who she supported for several years.
Then she married me and seems happy, though the past still haunts her through nightmares and insecurities.
How did she survive all of this? I don't think I could have made it through it all and come out as normal as her.