Sometimes the Devil takes on many forms

1977 was a very good year for me the birth of my first born moving to a cosy new house, we were very happy.
Unfortunately not long after post natal depression set in and back then there was no such thing as maternity leave never mind paternity!
So if you wanted to keep your job you had to turn up no matter what.

Then one Wednesday evening I came home and my wife was a little lifted excited even, these very nice people had called and look they left her a Bible with pages marked to help her through her pain, also they had invited her to a meeting the following day to meet more friends.

That was how the nightmare began, it turned into a living hell for us that would have severe effects for about three and a half years and other things that happened thanks to that.

Just a little about me before we continue with the main tale, I became an atheist somewhere around the age of thirteen or fourteen it was something that gathered more momentum with the more doubts that I gave serious thought to, it didn’t however lead me to hate religion after all it wasn’t a calling I wasn’t out to convert others I saw no need.

Back to the main tale,

I was pleased that my wife had shown a positive interest in things outside the house and on the evenings after she had met these people she would tell me excitedly about what they had discussed.
After a few weeks she told me they had asked if they could have a meeting at our house, Would I mind? No I didn’t mind, if it helped her why should I?

Then one time she said they had asked her to attend the Church meeting would I like to come? This was an offer I declined superstition just isn’t my thing but I was willing to drop her off and pick her up afterwards.

During this time my house was being taken over, more and more meetings being held there I would get home about six and not get the house back until they had left around eight all the time they would bombard me with reasons why I should give my self to their version of God, which I easily brushed to one side because I was not interested.

A few months past and “guess what Les’ they have invited me to join their Church”, said the wife, “all I have to do is be re-baptised, Oh! And get you to convert”!
I Countered this with:-

1/ You have already been baptised into the Christian Faith it’s not an M.O.T. it doesn’t need to be renewed every few years.

And

2/ Not only do I not want to be converted but I am just getting a little impatient with your freaky friends.

Come the day of her so called ‘baptism’, I went to the Church to watch, out of respect for my wife.
I was astounded as two of the attendants grabbed me by the arms and frog marched me to the front.
Standing next to my wife watching as she went through this ritual. Their Parson, priest, whatever then started to make his way towards me, “and what have you chosen for your baptismal name he asked”? I replied that, “I hadn’t and had no intention of being baptised now or ever”!
I made my way back to my seat, after the service I was informed that although my wife had been baptised by them she could not be accepted as a full member until not only I but our son was baptised into their Church.
It was at this point after months of simmering my temper finally boiled over I told them what they could do with their strange views and not to come near me or my family again.

Unfortunately as much as I would like to say that this is the end of the story it isn’t.

Several months passed with me trying to stop my wife seeing these people and them telling her that I was all things evil and must be saved from myself.

I did eventually win in so far as I got her to realise that at the time she met these people she was ill and vulnerable, but she had proved over the last few months that she was getting back to her old self, (I had also to point out that this was because we were being helped through this by old and true friends that we knew before these people came into our lives).

She stopped going to meeting, she was the girl I’d fallen in love with again, always off with the child in the push chair.
It was after a few months that’s we realised that wherever in town we went one or more of them would be just around the corner and would attempt to get her back to the meetings. The Police can’t help in these circumstances so my wife started to withdraw into the house until she became agoraphobic, this took about two and a half years to get her out and about with the assistance of a wonderful self help group.

Sometime during this period I had the first of a few breakdowns and I must admit there seems to be a complete year missing during the time I was taking those weird and wonderful calm down pills.

Slight improvement came our way over the following few years, then joy of joys she was having our second child. It wasn’t the healthiest of pregnancies she was both physically and mentally worn out but happily we had a healthy baby girl.

Always lurking around the corner though were the religious weirdo’s still trying to drive a wedge between us, until we made the decision sod this why stay around here we’ll move back to Accrington and start again.

We moved back, we didn’t look back, and by that I don’t mean our life became a bed of roses, we just tried to block out from our lives the hell that we had been through.
Sadly five years ago we parted life just does that sometimes.

Neither my son or my daughter have ever been told of this so if your reading this I’m sorry but we just couldn’t bring ourselves to tell anyone.
I don’t even know if this is the way my wife remembers it and I doubt now that I will get a chance to ask.

So if this extremely long tale goes anywhere near to explaining why,

I DON’T WANT RELIGIOUS PEOPLE CALLING AT MY DOOR,

then it will have done some good.
But please, please, before you invite them into your home just remember the next set of lives they ruin could be yours they do prey on the weak and vulnerable!

Oh and just a little note for LancYorkYankee,
When I first met you you gave me a little religious booklet, I thanked you for it and added that it would have pride of place on my book shelf but that I would never read it, this left you confused, well perhaps now you will understand why, it is still on the shelf still unread, I had a lifetime of religious pamphlets pushed my way and I will never read another one!