ON YOUR OWN - Safety

Women Who Live Alone

Excerpts from a New Book by Ella Patterson

By the time women reach the age of fiftyfive, 46 percent live alone in the United States. Thirty-five million women are the head of their households. At least eighteen million women in the United States live alone. An additional twelve million women are single mothers. Uncounted other women head households while their husbands are away.

I am a woman who lived alone for only four years of my life and during that time, I encountered numerous incidents that left me bewildered, unsure and afraid. And even though I had five brothers they could not protect me PHOTO BY COTTONBRO while I was trying to grow-up and live away from home...alone.

I have been married for over twenty years now and sometimes I find myself alone even more. I travel on a regular basis to book signings, workshops, seminars, and I often stay at hotels and in strange cities.

I am compelled to write this book because of several reasons: One, my mother at the age of sixty-three was assaulted and raped in her home as she lies in her bed. Two, one of my sorority sisters, Jacqueline Patrick was assaulted, stabbed, and murdered in her home. Three, I have two daughters that have now moved in their own apartments and are trying to live a happy and safe life alone, therefore I am urged to write this book for personal and practical reasons. Most of the incidents in this book were inflicted by people that the victims knew. As a matter of fact, the people that assaulted my mother and my friend were their neighbors.

There is a major concern for women to protect themselves. Burying your head in the sand and hoping that something will not happen to you is not the intelligent way to prepare for your safety. If crime has not happened to you, then it probably has happened to someone you know: a friend, relative, neighbor, or co-worker. Rape, robbery, and assault, in the last ten years have doubled. The President has named the war against crime the nation’s priority.

Unfortunately, women are not given a large arsenal to fight with. More women than ever are buying guns, but that haven’t slowed down the crime rate. Weapon toting Americans even think that crime has increased since doing so. Personal safety classes are multiplying, and more parents are enrolling their children in self-defense classes than ever before. Most people obtain their safety from the information given on talk shows, women’s magazines, and office gossip.

There is a great deal of women who are alone and are not counted when their husbands are away. Salesmen, military men, night shift workers, church mission executives, entertainers, doctors, nurses, firefighters, taxi drivers, athletes, pilots, politicians, truck drivers, incarcerated, police officers, and corporate executives. Then there are the wives of loner’s men who are physically there but are