After The Quiet

I Wasn’t Allowed To Shine

In Episode 66 of After the Quiet, I share how accepting the opportunity to help open a brand new school became another source of anger and control in my marriage. What should have been an exciting and empowering professional milestone was met with jealousy, criticism, and accusations that I wanted attention or was becoming “too involved” in my career. As I stepped into a creative, collaborative school environment where I felt valued and supported, the contrast between my work life and home life became impossible to ignore. This episode explores emotional abuse, isolation, professional identity, workplace empowerment, and how controlling partners often feel threatened when their spouse begins rebuilding confidence and independence.

It Was About Control

In Episode 65 of After the Quiet, I share the painful moment I was told I couldn’t attend a concert by my favourite artist because it was considered “frivolous” spending—only for that artist to pass away weeks later. What seemed like an argument about money was actually something much deeper: control over joy, independence, and self-worth. This episode explores financial abuse, emotional manipulation, hidden bank accounts, guilt around spending, and the double standards that often exist in controlling relationships. While I was made to feel selfish for wanting one night for myself, thousands of dollars were quietly being spent elsewhere without question. It was never really about the concert—it was about control.

I Drove Myself To The Hospital

In Episode 64 of After the Quiet, I share the night I broke my ankle at my children’s soccer practice—and was left to deal with it completely alone. What began as a simple accident quickly revealed something much deeper: a pattern of emotional neglect, dismissal, and coercive control that had become normalized in my marriage. As I struggled in pain, cared for my children from the couch, and eventually drove myself to the hospital with a broken ankle, I began to realize how little my wellbeing truly mattered to the person who claimed to love me. This episode explores emotional abuse, medical neglect, gaslighting, and the damaging impact of being repeatedly told your pain is “dramatic.”

Grief, Control, and Missing Goodbyes

In Episode 63 of After the Quiet, I share one of the most painful chapters of my life—losing my aunt and my father while living under intense coercive control. As my aunt battled terminal cancer, I was prevented from visiting her before she passed away. Shortly afterward, my father was hospitalized with aspiration pneumonia, and once again, control and manipulation limited the time I could spend with someone I loved deeply. This episode explores grief, regret, emotional abuse, caregiving, family loss, and the devastating impact of coercive control during moments when support and connection matter most. It’s a story about mourning not only the people we lose—but also the time and memories taken from us.

My Health Scare

In Episode 62 of After the Quiet, I share the terrifying health scare that shifted my focus away from my collapsing marriage and onto my own survival. What started as a small lump in my abdomen quickly led to ultrasounds, MRIs, referrals to a cancer hospital, biopsies, and the frightening possibility of cancer. As I navigated medical uncertainty, I was also dealing with emotional abuse, overwhelming stress, and unimaginable grief—including the loss of my grandmother, aunt, and father within a short period of time. This episode explores survival mode, fear, grief, and how coercive control can intensify even during life’s most devastating moments.