Did karma catch up with your abuser?
VICTIMS of abuse, especially children, often do not have the courage, power or ability to see to it that their abusers are brought to justice immediately.
It can be a cripplingly frightening task for one to report being violated by one’s own parents, partner, relatives, neighbours or colleagues, especially when your protection is not guaranteed. Sadly, many victims of sexual and physical abuse suffer in silence while they hope that karma will someday catch up to their abusers.
But does karma ever catch up to them? These survivors of abuse share what happened to the perpetrators in the long run, and whether they think life dealt them any real justice for their wicked ways.
Channa, 30, shopkeeper:
The man who molested me as a child still lives down the road from me, going about his life as usual. Now that I’m an adult with children of my own, I don’t speak to him at all, and I don’t even allow my daughter to walk that way. As I watch him go up in age and none of his children seem to really come visit him or help him out financially, I feel a little bit of satisfaction, but not much. I hope he has a long, miserable life before he dies and goes to hell.
Jenel, 26, nurse:
Well, one of them is dead. They found his decomposing body in some bushes behind his house a few years ago. They say he died of natural causes, but I also heard that he was fooling around with another girl and got caught a few weeks before, so who knows. After he was buried I went and stomped on his grave. My other abuser, my brother, is still going about his life as usual. He now has three daughters of his own and everyone pretends like nothing happened with me, so I just live my life and don’t go to family events if I can help it.
Russ, 27, mechanic:
She used to take care of me at times when family had to go to work and so forth, between the ages of seven to ten or thereabouts. The abuse was purely sexual. I didn’t tell anyone because I never really thought anyone would even believe me or anything would come from it. She is somewhere in America now. Justice? Nah… Karma? Couldn’t say. I haven’t seen her in ages now.
Hanna, 36, domestic engineer:
My first abuser, my stepfather, walked me down the aisle when I was getting married. It must have been some foreshadowing because my husband also turned out to be abusive. He would force me to be intimate when I wasn’t in the mood, and would become very violent when he didn’t have his way. My stepfather is now in his 60s. I heard he caught COVID the other day and got better. My ex-husband now has a new wife and other children and seems to be doing well, so I know karma isn’t real.
SJ, 28, marketer:
I don’t know what happened to them. It was three guys from my school, when I was about 15. One of them was my boyfriend at the time. One day we were all hanging out at the back of the school and they all coerced me and took turns. One of them recorded a part of it, and I had to change schools. I haven’t seen or spoken to any of them since, but I heard the name of one of them in the news as someone who was shot and killed. It’s a common name, so maybe it wasn’t him, and God forgive me, but I hope it was him.
